


The Dark island

by Ninjaman2



Series: The New World Saga [3]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Aged-Up Character(s), Awkward Sexual Situations, Bisexuality, Blood Loss, Blood and Injury, Character Death, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Drama & Romance, Dysfunctional Family, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Family, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Family Issues, Family Loss, Family Secrets, First Kiss, First Love, First Time, Genderbending, Gore, Half-Sibling Incest, Homosexuality, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Incest, Incest, Loss, Loss of Control, Loss of Identity, Loss of Limbs, Loss of Parent(s), Loss of Powers, Loss of Trust, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Memory Loss, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Mild Sexual Content, Nudity, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Relationship(s), Past Violence, Rape Aftermath, Resolved Sexual Tension, Romance, Secret Crush, Secrets, Sequel, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Team as Family, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-04-18 19:05:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 52
Words: 28,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14219754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninjaman2/pseuds/Ninjaman2
Summary: After finding two of the golden weapons and defeating the skeleton army, the ninja have searched Ninjago for the remaining two, but without luck they turn to an ancient prophecy which tells of a dark island and so as new members join the team and new romances are born, tragedy strikes the ninja as they are scattered across and unknown landmass with three groups of people hunting them down





	1. Notice

Please read: The New World before reading this story as it will explain a lot. For those who are joining us from the previous story, Chapter 6's character plan is still in effect so you can send in character to be used.


	2. System Startup

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It begins

Visualisers active, voice box active… full system operational?... operating at 100% capacity. 

The robotic eyes looked around, the place he was large and dark and he was alone. Then he heard a voice. The voice of woman, the voice was synthesized but he could hear it clearly. “Hello Zane, welcome to the world”. The metal man looked around his surroundings. “The world?” he shocked himself with his own voice, “Am, I Zane?” his computer brain scanned his systems for the word Zane. No data matched the specified condition. “Yes, and I am Pixel, I am here to help” she spoke reassuringly to Zane. He looked at his shiny silver body, he was completely naked. “Nya will be returning soon, she will explain everything.” Zane once again scanned his systems of the word Nya, but again his systems were empty. In fact, he only had data on combat and fighting styles. Suddenly, lights shone and his surroundings became illuminated. Zane looked at his surroundings which he could get a better look at. There were old arcade systems scattered about. A large TV on one wall with a battered green sofa in front of it, several beds were also scattered about, including a hammock. On the floor, there were many different types of… women’s underwear. But consistently no bras. Then a rumble can through as an armoured woman can through a large doorway riding a motor bike. 

“Hey Pix’ I’m back.” She said happily, the girl began to strip off the armour until she was wearing nothing but a black thong. “Nya, where are the others?” Pixel’s computer voice range out. “Cole and the brothers are still following leads on the other two weapons after we found out they weren’t in the places the map said they were. Kai and Skylor are… actually I don’t know where they are, probably fucking somewhere, you know those love birds”. She laughed at her own joke before relaxing on the sofa in front of the TV. “You say that Nya but you pleasure yourself almost every night over a picture of Jay you have” Pixel interjected while playing security camera footage of Nya having ‘fun’. Blushing madly Nya screamed for Pixel to turn the video off. “Besides, you have something more important to deal with, Zane”. Nya suddenly realized Zane was standing right next to her. “It worked… IT WORKED!” she screamed looking at her creation. “Ahem… Hello Zane, I’m Nya, I created you”. Zane’s logs recorded this information. “Why was I created?” Zane asked. Nya smiled like a proud parent. “To protect those who cannot protect themselves”. Zane’s logs once again recorded the information. “Once more question. Why am I now like this?” he gestured downwards. Nya blushed pink and giggled, “So I could to do this- “before she could more into position another girl walked in and pushed Nya out of the way, this girl had large cleavage, long read hear, and was wearing and armoured black ninja gi which exposed her breasts quite nicely. “Oh, please Nya, you don’t have the tits to do that” the girl mocked. “Skylor! This is private!” Nya yelled at the other girl. 

Skylor had changed quite a bit since the last tale, well two years have passed. Skylor was always very enthusiastic but it was mainly a cover for a girl that was very unsure of herself and nervous. After she admitted her love and found a man who loved her dearly, she became a lot more sure of herself and confident and secure with her bisexuality – also she stopped dying her hair. “You have a boyfriend Skylor!” Nya yelled. “So, do you” Skylor casually replied whilst undressing herself. “Mine’s very supportive” Skylor continued. “Mine isn’t here” Nya said gesturing towards he who had just walked in. Skylor, who was now in her underwear, waved at Kai. “Kai, stop your girlfriend” Nya yelled, “She trying to fuck another man!” Kai didn’t even budge but responded with: “He’s a robot and I don’t give a shit, I’m tired”. He stripped into his underwear and passed out in one of the beds. Skylor smirked, “and besides, who said I was trying anything” she said, finishing her strip off session before walking to the television and turning it onto the news before collapsing onto the sofa next to Nya, “I was just stating a fact” Skylor finished before zoning out. Nya was embarrassed and pissed. Her adopted brother hadn’t made the situation better. Zane watched the whole situation unfold. “Do we continue?” he asked. Nya sighed and gestured him to follow her. She opened a dresser and pulled out a pair of grey boxers. “No, we don’t” Nya passed Zane the underwear who looked at them confused. Nya laughed and put the underwear on her creation. “Pixel give Zane some basic info on everything, K?” she said before joining her only female friend on the sofa. Zane walked over to a large computer where bars which represent frequency changed when Pixel spoke, a large wire had come out of the computer and inserted itself into Zane’s head. Streams of data flowed into the brain of the robot and he learnt everything he needed.


	3. Zane's observations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author notes will now be given in {} those brackets - e.g. {That's a joke BTW}

Two hours later Cole, Jaku, Kaze, and Kiomi all arrived at the cave. Found Nya passed out in her hammock, Kai and Skylor asleep in the same bed and Zane plugged into a computer wearing a pair of Cole’s underwear. “Robots working, huh” He said as he walked over to the where the ninja had their map and scroll collection. Cole had just found a scroll about a place called the dark island. Hopefully the can get something out of it. Cole looked at Kiomi as he removed his shirt to reapply bandages that he had put on weeks ago. Cole admired the man’s muscular build. ‘God I’m pent up’ Cole thought, looking at the other man. Cole slid into his bed, his sore muscle aching as he got comfortable. But as he drifted off, he noticed Zane staring at him. Perhaps, it was just the direction he was facing when he turned off, perhaps something else. The next day Cole talked about the scroll and information gathered while they were out. He noticed Nya kept trying to get his attention. Half a year ago Nya broke up with Jay after finding out about Sensei Wu murder, likely, she was trying to get on Cole. But Cole was gay so there would be little luck for her there. Zane walked over to where the ninja was enjoying their morning meal. He sat down next to Cole and read the scroll, the ancient language being translated into digits in his head. Cole could only translate three words on the scroll: Dark island, Golden, Temple of Light. Zane then spoke, reading of the scroll: “Ninja, numbered five, must travel to Dark Island to find the Golden goal. The Temple of Light will give them hope and fulfill black desires”. Skylor clapped after Zane finished and Kiomi whistled. The rest of the group burst out laughing and Zane even mimicked a chuckle – over the last two years, this group had become a real family, even Zane could tell. A new file was therefore created in his skull: humour – positive emotion. “Kai, any insight?” Kaze asked, his green hair had grown quite long but he refused to cut it as he said it was in remembrance on Sensei Wu’s long flowing beard. Even now, the fate of Wu was heavy on Cole’s soul.

Following breakfast, most people got to training. Kiomi went to a nearby stream and fished, Kai and Skylor went… somewhere. Kaze and Jaku trained, Cole meditated in front of the golden Scythe and Nya worked on Zane, but now he was finished she could return her attention to her 'side project'. Zane watched the people carry out their lives and made personal notes about each of them. He used their sleeping clothes and a keep figure. Noble and strong-willed: Cole, Kaze, and Jaku slept fully clothed or at least shirtless. Humorous and kind: Kai and Kiomi slept in their underwear. Flirty but gentle and afraid of the dark: Nya slept mostly naked – Zane did notice however, mainly though camera recordings given to him by pixel, that her clothing amount and position changed when she broke up with Jay and that she moved her hammock closer to Cole. Enthusiastic, flirty, and shameless: Skylor slept completely naked and tended to be naked also nobody seemed to care or notice she was but when he attempted to remove the clothing put on him to place in the washing machine like Kai did, people got very distressed. He also observed that Kai and Skylor were in a romantic relationship which meant that they slept in the same bed. He noted that because nobody else did, they must not be in a relationship. Finally, he noticed something odd about Nya, two things odd about Nya. Firstly, she didn’t like people touching her underwear, not men and not Skylor who was a girl – this includes the underwear on the floor but also, she didn’t like men being near her if they were below her waist, one time, she was bent over a generator and Cole was handing her the tools she needed to repair it and he got too close to her private area and she had a panic attack – mental note for future, peruse answer of that behavior. Secondly, she acted strangely around Cole, like Skylor does around Kai sometimes but she also acts that way towards Skylor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aah... The calm before the storm. The very literal storm


	4. I Know Who I Am

Zane walked over to where Cole was meditating in front of the scythe. “Hello Cole, can I ask some questions?” he said, sitting down in a position similar to Cole’s. Cole opened his eyes, “Only natural that you’d want to, ask away” he said openly. “What happened to Nya?” His question was very open but Cole knew exactly what he meant. Cole sighed. “Not for me to say, Kai only told me it was something very bad”. Zane noted that this information is very personal to the two. “Next, why does Nya act weird around you and Skylor?” Zane continued. “Simple, she likes me and probably Skylor, to be honest, I expected them two to end up dating rather than Kai and Skylor”. Zane raised and metallic eyebrow. “Likes as in fallen in love, likes had multiple meanings”. Zane was thankful for the information. “Finally, no offence, but what are you doing?” Zane gestured towards the weapon. “You see Zane, many people have a connection to the four elements that were used to form Ninjago, I am connected to the earth, Kai to: fire. Nya’s ex to: lightning. This weapon contains the power of the earth and was used to form Ninjago, those shuriken contain ice, used for the same purpose.” He pointed at another set of weapons. “Actually, Zane grab those weapons for me” As Zane walked to the next table, Cole signalled Kai, Kaze, Skylor, and Jaku to come to him. Zane grabbed the two shuriken and suddenly he was in a snowy birch forest.

Four men stood before him: they were in black, white, blue, and red. The one in black carried the golden scythe. The once in white held the shuriken. He could tell the people were speaking but his audio sensors weren’t detecting any sound. Then suddenly audio from the one white was detected as he was lifted into the air, surrounded in a blue glow as his body turned to ice. Then Zane was back in the cave where his friend was staring at him. “His eyes” Cole said in awe. Zane was holding the elemental weapons and ice had covered his entire body before shattering leaving Zane in once piece (except his underwear) and blue eyes. Zane’s eyes were originally green but now they were blue. Kai walked forward and put an arm around Zane and spoke, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Zane master of ice!”. This was too much data for Zane to handle at the time but I felt right to him to hear that name, he passed the shuriken to Cole who pushed them back, “They belong to you Zane”. Nya looked happy but on the inside, she was sad because now Zane was going to become a ninja, while she wanted him to be her samurai partner.


	5. The Map

Zane fit into the gi perfectly. He didn’t understand why he needed it but the rest of the team except of Kiomi and Nya wore it. Nya wore an impressive but revealing suit of armour (less revealing than the last one, to avoid those situations). Kiomi was casually dressed. Zane also quickly picked up Spinjitzu, unlike Skylor who still struggles sometimes. Nya, Kaze, Jaku, and Kiomi also said they didn’t want to learn it. 

Kiomi went to their old lodgings in a fishing village to the east where he spent time with sailors on a fishing trip learning about this mysterious dark island most people insisted that there was no land outside Ninjago large enough to be call and island, but Skylor insisted there was. Zane picked up the skills of being a ninja from Kaze who was a great teacher, he taught Cole and Kai. Skylor learnt from someone else but never talks about who, similar to Kiomi who also never talks about his past. Kiomi was a positive person. Always putting others before himself and trying to help people. Zane noticed he didn’t like violence, which was categorised under his irony file as ironic because he was a part of a vigilante/resistance group. After a three-week fishing trip Kiomi and Skylor returned with little news to HQ. Cole looked at the map of golden weapons he had received from Wu, there must have been something he missed. Zane also searched the map. “It’s a dragon” Zane eventually said. Cole looked up from his studying. “Yep” before returning to his work. Zane continued though, “A curved dragon which is light coloured with an outward leaning large point with a centre, like the symbol of Yin and Yang”. Then Cole snapped to attention. He quickly sketched the shape of Ninjago onto another piece of paper and put it next to the map, and they join together perfectly, like Yin and Yang. “Zane you’re a genius!” Cole yelled with glee running to the others. “No Cole, I am a robot called Zane” he replied simply before following. 

Cole explained Zane’s revelation and showed the rest of the team the map. Who didn’t find it at all helpful, “What does this do to help us find it?” Kai said, clearly uninterested. “It proves it exists, why was Ninjago be perfectly made to fit Yin and Yang if this wasn’t true!” Cole said. Then Kai paused, looking at Cole’s crudely drawn island and smiled. “The dark island exists all right” the team (except Zane) all immediately knew Kai had just had a vision. “we need a boat!” Kai said proudly. The Kiomi felt pride himself, “I can get you that boat!”. Short story is, he couldn’t.


	6. Cruise Ship Crush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going to start with two chapters daily now

No boat would blindly sail into the endless sea on some wild goose chase. Nya rolled up in her finished pet project while Cole and Kiomi attempted to convince the old sea captain. It was a large red and black van called: The DB X. She opened the driver’s door and walked out along with Skylor who we both dressed in seductive stripper lingerie. They walked right over to the sea dog and whispered in his ear, “Aww, that too bad, we and our friend were hoping you would take us on a little trip” and with that Skylor pretended it was an accident but deliberately let her large breasts come out from under her bra. The sea captain instantly agreed to the voyage. The ninja collected their supplies for their trip. Pixel was connected to both Zane and the DB X which was loaded onto the large ship owned by their captain of choice. “We have to ditch the captain” Nya said eventually while they were on the way to the boat. Kai smiled, “Way ahead of you sis, I had Skylor slip something into his drink yesterday, won’t be waking up in time to stop us from leaving”. The two arrived on the ship where the rest of the ‘crew’ was waiting. Soon they were in the bay and sailing on smooth open waters. 

Cole had purchased, for some reason. Several yacht/beach holiday equipment, including sun loungers which Skylor was taking full advantage off. Nya had pixel tap into the ship’s electronics and she was now steering the ninja to the unknown. 

Three days past on the open water. Nya and Skylor were relaxing on the deck in swimsuit bikinis, Skylor’s made Kai very happy. “This is the life, away from trouble, people. The open water dream” Nya said with bliss. Skylor raised her sunglasses and looked towards the younger girl. “Or are you just happy that Cole is almost naked and can’t get away from you”. Nya looked at Cole. He was training against Kai using wooden swords and both were in swimming trunks. Nya blushed, “Shut up!” she said shyly. Skylor laughed. “I bet he knows already. But onto another note, I though you and Kai were siblings, why do you have a crush on him?”. Nya panicked and put her hands over Skylor’s mouth, who immediately began to gurgle. Nya was looking at Kai and Cole who hadn’t noticed. “Quiet about that, I don’t want to ruin my friendship with him. He’s my adopted brother, no blood relation, it’s not taboo or anything, also” but she stopped as she noticed a long stream of salt water flowing up from the bay into Skylor’s mouth. Nya immediately panicked and as she did the water going into Skylor’s mouth stopped. She breathed in a large breath of sea air. Nya looked at her hands, she lifted her hand up and tendrils of liquid shot up from the water around her. Then both her and Kai yelled “Stop the Boat!”


	7. Master of Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three chapters because I'm in a good mood.

Nya dived into the ocean and looked about and saw something slightly shiny at the very bottom. Kai soon descended into the bay wearing diving gear. The two swam downwards. Nya, seemingly not bothered by the high pressure. There was a long pole like object in the bay which was covered in rocks, coral, and mud but some areas shone clearly with gold. The two surfaced and passed Cole the shaft. Cole gripped the shaft (God the innuendoes), it was long, hard, slimy, and thick (all right I’ll stop with the innuendoes). Cole concentrated and his arms began to develop deep cracks. Orange energy began to glow from the crack and his hands as the earth upon the pole began to vibrate and soon it disintegrated leaving a shining golden spear with an image of a dragon forged on the tip. Kai looked at Nya quizzically, “How did you know that it was here? I saw this one like when I saw the scythe”. Nya looked at her toes and then the rest of her body. She quickly removed her bikini and looked at her body. The bikini was completely soaked through, but every inch of her skin and all of her hair was dry. The parts of the spear which were exposed to the water were also dry. But, Kai was soaked to the bone. The dots connected in her head. “I think I’m the elemental master of water” she said. “Only one way to check” Cole said, nodding towards Skylor who placed her hand upon Nya and then walked towards the water. Skylor raised her hands and large balls of water filled with sea life rose into the air and then descended on her command. “Could you do that before?” Cole asked. She shook her head, “Ever since Wu told me I was likely to have elemental powers, I always wanted water, I tried to do that so many times, only now has it worked. She is definitely and elemental master” Skylor finished. Kai put an arm around Nya and said, “Now you’re one of us… also put your clothes back on, Skylor is getting excited” Skylor rolled her eyes at Kai who laughed. The boat then continued at full speed, to nowhere.

The next thing Zane knew he was on a beach. Bits of wood and metal scattered around him. Pixel was running system diagnostics within his head. “Pixel locate the others” he said as he got to his feet, a sonar like pulse was produced by Zane which spread out across the island they were on, but only found some small wild life.

Cole woke up similarly but he wasn’t alone this time. Nya was with him. She was completely dry. He wasn’t so lucky as his skin was wet with blood. He was covered in bite marks and scars. Nya was out cold however, so he would have to carry on by himself. He picked up Nya like a man would his bride and carried her off the beach. 

Kai found himself on a bed. It wasn’t very comfortable but it was ok. There was woman all around him. They we crudely dressed. Like primitive islanders. Many were straight up naked. He himself was still wearing the same outfit as before but he had red body paint drawn on him in straight lines across his chest. They all moved out of his way as he got up. He stepped out into a village surrounded by tall jungle trees. The village was filled with men and women all similarly dressed who were coming in and out of huts. A large and very nice-looking chair was being constructed in front of a large fire-pit. He looked around and found a woman of dark skin tone across the pit, however, her skin tone was familiar to him, she was similarly dress to the natives though, except for her white bikini bottoms. She had white paint upon her skin and her red hair was in a ponytail. It was Skylor and this village had seen the two of them unconscious but Kai was on fire when they found him yet he was OK and the same with Skylor who was locked in his flaming embrace but wasn’t hurt. This caused the people to view them as some God or goddess as they had no contact with the rest of Ninjago. 

Kaze and Kiomi were having the worst time however because they had just woken up in the brig of a pirate ship and were face to face with Jay, first mate of the Misfortune’s Keep.


	8. Life on the Island

Zane was sat on a mountain top. His clothes had been ripped completely off and he was naked and currently running a file called: fear – negative emotion. Pixel was trying to analyse their surroundings. Then Zane spotted smoke. ‘Could be Kai’ he said mentally to Pixel who was sceptical. But the two had little options and so headed towards the smoke.

Kai was sat on a throne while held Skylor in his arms. The two were being worshipped by the tribe’s people of the island. The sun began to set and the village back shrouded in darkness. Kai sent out a fireball which lit the great bonfire in front of the throne and the villagers cheered. “As long as we keep this up, they might not kill us” Kai whispered to Skylor who nodded. She descended from the throne towards a large hut soon followed by Kai who yawned. The villagers saw this as a gesture of tiredness and gave them privacy. “Good work god of fire Kai” Skylor said with a mixture of mockery and seduction. Despite what most people think, Kai and Skylor had never actually had sex and whilst the two were alone like this, there was a feeling, a desire. They both felt the pull, but both didn’t have a clue on how to do it. 

Cole had found the remains of most of the boat and found the DB X. Inside he was able to communicate with Pixel and Zane. Nya slept. And Cole was bleeding badly. There was a lot of blood on his legs. Turning away from the girl, he removed his swim shorts and found a nasty gash below the waist where part of a sword was stuck in. Cole grabbed some bandages and pain killers from a medicine cabinet in the large van. He swallowed several and used his super strength to pull out the blade, increasing blood loss. He quickly rapped up the wound with many bandages. Nya had woken up, she was dehydrated and light headed and saw Cole naked in front of her. She noticed the hole he’d just made in himself and all of the blood and sprung to action. Together, they managed to bandage him up. Their bodies were very close when they’d finished. Her chest touched his. His strong musically hands around her waist. She blushed pink and he blushed slightly realising his ‘muscles’ position. “Nya… we can’t…. I’m not… what if Kai… I’m not straight” he struggled to find the words. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned in close and when her mouth was an inch from his, she whispered “you don’t have to be”. She closed the distance and he slowly undressed her, and as he did he thought, ‘there’s a first time for everything’.

Kiomi and Kaze were still in a cell. 

Zane had now spent five hours on an island that appears uninhabited to him, with no one but a disembodies feminine voice to keep him company. Yes, he did fall in love with it, he filled it under love – unclear emotion.


	9. On Course

Cole wasn’t the best driver. But as Nya wasn’t good on her feet he decided that he’ll have to drive. She insisted that she’s fine but the on board computer had diagnosed her with a serious concussion and he wasn’t taking any chances. He spent most of his time trying to remember why the boat had crashed. He remembered a storm, there was something else as well. Cole was still dressed in his blood-soaked swimming shorts and Nya in her blue bikini. The girl had her arm around Cole. He thought about the previous night. He had enjoyed it yes, but it only cemented the fact he was homosexual. He was lucky though, nothing had happened. While she slept the previous night he used the on board computer to do a full body scan of Nya, that’s how they found out she had a concussion. But Cole was really using it to check if something else had happened, luckily nothing had but he set the computer to notify him if anything does happen. Nya was in heaven though, she had had her first time in the arms the man of her dreams and now she’s snuggling next to him while the drive across a tropical island – very romantic. Cole turned his head to see Nya wake up. “Hey sleepy head” he greeted warmly. “Hey. How was last night?” she asked devilishly. “It was… great really but, I’m still gay and may never be able to look Kai in the eyes again” he said jokingly. She laughed as they continued driving. By midday they had reached the top of a mountain, the sat on the roof of the DB X and looked across the huge jungle that spread for miles. They were alone. 

Zane wandered through and open area of plains talking aloud to Pixel. “I think we should make you a body when we get back, having a body is fun, you’d like it” Pixel had become smitten with the joyful robot and she didn’t even know how. Then Zane stopped. He saw three men holding very primitive weapons kill a very hairy pig. Zane began to walk towards the people despite the warnings to Pixel,” Hello, people” he greeted. The men looked at Zane with wide eyes. A man made of metal? The grabbed him and the pig and ran to their village.

Kai didn’t like this ‘god’ treatment he had been receiving. It was nice but the village relied on him for everything, mind you, he had only been there for a day. He was observing some freshly harvested fruit to identify what trees were growing bad fruit when three hunters ran in and bowed before the him. The spoke in a very primitive version on Ninjago’s language but Kai had learnt to understand it. They told how they were hunting when they found a metal man and upon hearing metal man Skylor ran over. Kai shot up, “Bring him to me!” he commanded and two women brought forth Zane. “Hello Kai, what an odd place this is. Oh, hello Skylor” Zane didn’t seem to care about the situation he was in. Kai embraced his friend and Skylor did the same. Kai then explain to the village folk that he was one of his missing friends. The hunters left to continue their hunt. Kai got a few of the women to get clothes for Zane. Skylor mused at how positive Zane looked despite their current position. They needed a way out. 

So, did Kiomi and Kaze. Their time aboard the Misfortune’s Keep consisted mostly of being pelted with bottles of assorted alcohols and insults. Up above on the main deck Jay, who was acting captain while his father was away, was trying to convince his crew to head the same way the ninja did. “You’ve all seen it. The ninja carry weapons, made of solid gold. If they’ve left Ninjago to head to some island off the shore, likely they’re looking for more. I say we go to this island and get these golden weapons before they do and we be rich men. What say you!” he yelled towards his crew. There was a resounding cry of “Aye!” from the men who began to get the ship on course towards the island.


	10. The Might of Water

Cole looked over the cliff, the drop below was sheer but there was water at the bottom. “ Hey Nya, do you think you could do something with the water at the bottom?” Cole turned back to Nya who was now wearing a different samurai X suit but without a helmet. It was blue, black, and gold. “Where did you get that?”. “Old model of the suit, never used it.” She said as she walked towards the cliff. Closing her eyes, she imagined the water rising and forming a gentle downwards slope for the DB X to drive down. Cole watched as huge columns of water rose into the air and began to change and slope, forming a solid downwards ramp. “Go quickly, this is difficult to do” Nya said, she sounded breathless. Cole quickly threw her into the van and got in himself. As the DB X sped down the watery slope, the path behind them dissipated. Cole pushed the van to its limits as the collapsing path began to gain on them. He glanced at Nya who was sweating profusely and looked like she was about to collapse. Pale skin, bleeding nose. The DB X reached solid ground just as the last pillar sunk into the lake. Nya let out a large breath of air and coughed. Cole looked at the lake behind him, now perfectly still; “Shit” he gasped, watching as the misty spray slammed against the DB X.


	11. Snakes

The dusty dunes spread wide as the scaled foes slithered across. coming across a great bone ruin they stopped. One such creature moved forward, past his fellow beasts. It's tail, long and crimson, with white burns across the flesh, gave the skeletal. A great rattle rose as tail did. Clearly, a figure of authority. This leader, pursued by likewise red and white serpents, who, on its rattling, journeyed into the maw or the skeletal structure. Dust clogged the senses as clouds of sand filled the night sky. Metal. Hiding beneath the sand... like a snake. Two of the present serpents were darker in complexion. Their arms larger, their skulls thicker. They pounded great spheres into the metal until a whole was formed. 

Descending into a narrow corridor, the full form of this group could be gathered. Slimy serpents amassed for yards, their hissing, creating nightmares for the townspeople nearby, their bodies dripping with purple venom. This venom forming a corrupted lake which even the most hideous of eels, dare not linger. The tailed serpent scanned the chamber which followed the tunnel. Its body was greatly mutated. Dual snapping heads, blackened gums keeping glass shards under lock and key. Green poisonous eyes darting from every screen, to every bed, to every dirty sock. Its left head snapped in disgust; "Not here". It's right nodded, hissing out a solemn "Gone". The creature embarked, but not before rattling its tail once more. The blackened snakes ripped the cave apart like a ravenous animal... until they stumbled upon vehicles. Returning to the room, the mutant smiled. Licking its knife-like teeth with its forked tongue.

The night air was bombarded with the forceful entry of motor vehicles. Serpents who took the form of motorbikes, or perhaps the other-way round. They sped across the dunes with vengeance in their eyes. Vengeance's thirst would therefore be quenched on the unsuspecting town of Oasis.


	12. Tests

Cole yawned. Two days he had spent on this island, but two days he was grateful to have. The wound upon his waist wasn't healing, it was getting worse. Perhaps speeding off a cliff had re-opened it. The engine of the van roared to life as Cole slammed his foot onto the peddle. Speeding through the foliage and watching as green flew past his windows was blissful for Cole. Then something began to bother him. He looked as the seat opposite to the driver's. There, slept a teenage woman in cyan. Cole felt bad. His mind clogged with thoughts of this girl’s bare body. Every inch of her skill was like a hot prong to his brain. He stopped the DB X. He clambered through a small doorway on the wall situated behind the seat. Inside was the medical centre amongst other pieces of equipment. A screen activated and in the darkness pierced his eyes, the same screen was on that night... shining upon him with the same glow. Navigating the motion-sensing menus he brought of a full body scanner. The computer's monitor displayed a progress wheel as it scanned the body in the front. 100%.   
Subject: Female,  
Aged: 19,  
Heart Rate: Normal,  
Blood Pressure: Normal,  
Pregnancy: Negative,  
Condition: Mild Concussion, low blood sugar levels,  
Conclusion: Needs food.

Relief. Cole dimmed the screen. His mind though, wasn't eased. "Why!" He cried, slamming his fist against the wall, making a reasonable dent. "Why... did I do it" once again he cried, but this time his anguish was accompanied with tears. Green. Cole's blood shot onyx eyes snapped open. Green. All he saw. Green. Cole felt light headed. Green. 

Nya's heart jolted as the sound of a rhino running into concrete rang from behind her. Her blue eyes swept the surroundings before locking target upon the rear-view mirror. In its glass she saw herself, but... "My eyes!" her heart leapt into the base of her throat. What was once the colour of dirt and the earth was now a deep ocean blue. Then locking eyes with the mirror, she saw behind her, into the centre of the van. On the floor, collapsed was a body, which must have hit the floor with some force as it was cracked under the person. "Cole!" she cried weakly, the constant shock amid the hunger which burnt her stomach, had left Nya drained. Slowly, she crawled towards the stone man. Gently, she placed him in the recovery position while reaching for the screen above. Her voice was shot but she managed to croak: "Voice activation: Nya". A sharp female voice replied. "Password?". Nya racked her brain for the simple code but due to her low energy, it was difficult to multitask. Then her face dropped. She had remembered the password, "Jay is the most attractive man in the world" she spat with hatred. "Access granted, welcome Nya". The voice replied cheerfully. Rolling her eyes, Nya vocally brought up the medical scanned and attempted to scan Cole. 'No life form detected'. The girl turned her attention back to where Cole was, but found him made of stone. The last of her energy gone. She collapsed on top of him.


	13. Memories

Smoke burning the hair of his nostrils, that was his first sensation. The next was that lack of oxygen. Cole jumped up from the floor and spun around. He was… he froze. He knew where he was, but he also knew what was happening. Smoke and ash fell from the sky. Every inch of his skin burnt as he met the acidic air. He watched as people, young and old, ran for their lives. Everything moved in slow motion. Explosions to his left, death to his right. He knew this scene. Skeletons. Pirates. Death. 

Then the scene changed. He was looking at himself. A young man, still in his prime. He sat on a sofa, dressed in luxurious silk as women around him fed him delicious treats. He watched as their pale hands ran across his dark skin. Their eye’s wet with longing and desire. This was years before Cole became the man his friends saw. There was one woman, up upon a stage. She danced and swung upon a pole, like similar women, but she wasn’t the same as the others. Her face wet with tears, her makeup running down her face as quickly as she herself wanted too. Her body was bare, only a few scrapes of silk hiding her precious treasures from the man. “You there!” he spoke without consent, his body active on its own. No matter how much he wished or begged for the scene to change – for history to change, it didn’t. “Why do you cry?” he mocking question stung Cole heart as he recognized his own words. The young man placed his hands upon her face. The girl was only young, younger than Nya. Not even an adult yet, but forced here. Forced to be sexual entertainment. He unclasped his hands from the girl as she begged in a foreign tongue for freedom. Cole’s skin was dark but this child’s was darker, so much so, that she couldn’t have come from Ninjago island. Her complexion was similar to Skylor’s but definitely darker, it was likely they came from the same area.

Cole, the real Cole closed his eyes. Gunshot. Wet slump against the floor. The young man sat down on his large chair. A woman who again he similar skin tone but was an actual adult sat next to him. She wore gold and jewels which were formed into jewelry and sadly was the only clothing the woman had. The woman stared at the child’s body, still there, on the stage. She pushed a strand of red hair out of her face. She smiled at Cole. “Her fault anyway”, she said evilly before getting on her knees in front of the man, lowering his trousers and orally pleasuring him. The real Cole looked on with disgust and as he did he realized and tried his hardest to cry, or sob, or perform any emotion a human being could. This woman, was tall, busty, dark skinned, red haired, and had the same colored eyes… as Skylor. Cole was responsible for her death, the death of Skylor’s mother.

Once again, the seen shifted. Cole was on a hill. It was less of a hill but more off a cliff. He looked down at what was below him. Jagged rocks and a painful death. Even worse, was the remains. Hundreds, thousands of dead people; dead women. Teens to late twenties. Cole was staring at them was placing name to face. Every woman at that ‘party’ was visible in the pit. He was here to atone for his actions. Somewhere behind him, trying to find him, were three people. A tall man with dark red hair. A slightly shorter man with green hair, and a red haired, dark skinned girl. He was sorry, to them, to the women in the pit, to everyone. He stepped forward, into the hole.

 

But instead of the embrace of death. He felt wind. Opening his eyes, he saw he was hovering over the pit, being held back be something. Someone. Behind him stood and old man with a white beard. He glared at the man, “Let me go! I need to do this!” he screamed in the man’s face. The old man shook his head and spoke words that forever changed Cole’s life; “There are better ways to atone for what you have done Cole, but you must seek them. Not everything is given in life, especially for a rich man”. The old man pulled Cole back onto the ground where he sat down. Cole sat before the man, as he would come to do many times in the future. The old man retrieved an ornate tea pot who his bag, “Tea? I find, it awakens the mind”. He poured some tea into a cup and gave it to Cole, in another he did the same. The man lifted his cup to Cole, “My name is Wu”.

Snow. It spread across the land instantly. Cole turned to look and realized he wasn’t on the hill with Wu anymore. Small houses were blocking his path, forming a maze around him. Door’s like barricade, fences like spikes. Cole started to run but the buildings simply stalked their prey. They whispered the dark truth about Cole as he desperately tried to escape. ‘Murderer’, ‘Rapist’, ‘Slaver’, ‘Monster’, ‘Disappointment’. Cole’s eyes welled with tears with each word. The painful reputation was a cacophony of truth. He saw images in the windows. He saw himself and Kai, their friendship and rivalry but as he watched they changed to him sleeping with Kai’s younger sister. ‘He was a monster’ he thought. His feet collided and he fell to the ground. The hard stones slamming against his body. He sobbed and felt every insult slam into him like a hurricane force. He watched the little girl’s death repeat through his subconscious and as the bullet flew through her head he heart pounded. But, as he cried, he could her the noise begin to drift off. Soon, the images also disappeared and when he opened his red eyes, he was the everything had gone black. Then, behind him, he heard the crackle of a roaring fire. Turning around he looked upon the sight. {Holding off on a smash bros. reveal trailer joke here}. Cole looked at the emerald flames which formed the head of a mighty dragon. A person began to walk from within the flames, and descend towards Cole as though they were walking down stairs. At first, the figure seemed masculine. A man filled with power, her to save Cole. But as they approached, Cole realized that it was a woman. She knelt down in front of Cole and brought him to his feet. She had the body of a 17-year-old girl, her hair was blonde and put in a ponytail but her eyes were scarlet red. She wore a green outfit with a white lotus pattern. She smiled at him. “You can’t give up yet Cole; they need you, the team needs you… I need you”. As she said that the darkness around him began to lift and turn into a mighty golden light. The woman’s eyes changed from and evil red to a beautiful green. Cole was dazed and close to collapsing. But me managed to splutter, “hat more?”. She raised an eyebrow in confusion before realizing what he must have been trying to say. ‘What for?”. The girl opened her mouth to speak.


	14. Waking up

Nya shot up. She was in a mud hut but feeling a lot better. She was lying on a basic bed which was very uncomfortable. Kai was standing by the doorway. He ran towards her and scooped her up in a hug. “Thank goodness you safe” he sighed with relief. He was dressed in his swimming trunks but with red lines of paint drawn across his muscles and wore a tribal crown. After Kai broke off the hug, she gestured towards the crown which it color’s felt like a fresh lemon squeezed into her eyes when she looked at it, “what’s up with the hat?” she said, trying to avert her gaze from it. “don’t ask” he responded quickly. Skylor and Zane soon arrived in the entrance of the hut. Skylor was dressed in a thin leather hide tube bra which had be shoddily dyed white and similar red paint along her muscles. Her hair was crowned with a slightly smaller version of Kai’s thousand colored feather crown. She had a necklace of fruit around her neck and wore the white panties of her white swimsuit. Zane wore a small, ‘skirt’ of animal hide. It looked to Nya like a skirt and clearly, the villagers who made it, didn’t factoring Zane because his ‘USB stick’ was clearly visible. The two hugged Nya with the same force as Kai, Zane only did because Skylor did; he didn’t know what it meant. “Family reunions are good and all, but where’s Cole?” she said, fear creeping into her voice as his name came out as a squeak rather than a word. Kai and Skylor exchanged nervous glances. Zane replied quickly, and bluntly: “Cole has been in a coma for three hours since he got here, it is roughly estimated that he has been in a coma for five hours, also he’s right next to you”. The colour drained from Nya, as she glanced to a bed opposite her and saw his body. He was no longer made of stone but all the life in him looked drained. He breathed slowly and quietly.


	15. Why Me?

Cole walked along the beach with the girl, she had changed clothing. She now wore a green bikini with the same white lotus pattern on it. “So, I know you’ve explained this twice now, but, just so I can get it into my head…” he paused. The girl laughed slightly. “One more time Cole. You’re inside of your subconscious which is inexplicably linked to a point between space and time where I exist, I am basically your conscience.” Cole nodded. He breathed, this was a lot of information to take in. “Ok, but why is my conscience hot- “he hadn’t meant to say that. She laughed a sweet laugh, full of innocence and cheer. “I’m not really your conscience, I was just trying to create something that made sense to you”. She placed down a green beach towel under and umbrella. Then she placed a black one next to it. Cole noticed that she didn’t have the towels before this exact moment. She sat on the black one, while he sat on the green one. He looked at her as she admired the horizon. She began to glow pink, “Stop staring, your making me blush” she cried playfully. Cole quickly looked down. “I have one more question…” he paused. “but it’s about you and I might sound like a dick for asking”. She smiled but she was definitely less happy. “You want to know why my eyes changed colour, don’t you?” she said softly, her gaze returning to the ocean. “I need your help. Only you can do this Cole. I’m having a bit of a… what’s the best word for it…” she became lost in thought and for a second her eyes turned red before flashing emerald again. “I’m having a moral dilemma”. Cole looked at her and as he did, he swore he saw a single tear flow down her face. “Good versus evil. Your trying to control your dark side”. Cole knew exactly what she meant by moral dilemma. “Why can only I help, surely Kai would be better, he can see through time”. The girl shook her head before standing up; she turned and walked forwards towards the coastline’s cliff. She reached forwards and grabbed the air. She pulled her arm to the side and opened a… shower curtain. 

Cole was now on the floor of a large bathroom. The girl removed her bikini and looked at Cole. She at least had the modesty to cover herself slightly before speaking; “Because Cole, you’re having the same dilemma”.


	16. Gi

Cole woke up. He was in a comfortable bed. It was his own bed, from his own home. Not the X cave. His old home, where he lived with his father. He slid out of his bed and walked towards a large window on his right. The window opened out as a doorway onto a balcony. He looked at Ninjago city. Its dark streets were empty. There was no-one outside, everything was normal… then Cole noticed he was buck ass naked. 

Cole returned to his room and opened his closet. None of his clothes were present however. Then his door opened, and the girl with blonde hair entered. She was wearing the same dress as when they first met. Cole didn’t have time to react and therefore: time to cover up his naked body. The girl placed a ninja gi onto Cole’s bed. It was black like usual but with grey highlights and the mask had an armored spike to it {The elemental gi from the final battle wave of set/season of the show}. “I hope this is too your liking” she said sweetly. She looked up, “Nice” she smirked looking at Cole’s bare body. She threw down a similar gi to Cole’s except it had green highlights. {Lloyd’s elemental gi but with silver armor} “By the way, my name’s Harumi” The girl said, reaching into her pocket she pulled out a pair of grey boxers and threw them to Cole who quickly put them on. She picked up the green gi turned around. “Nowhere else for me to get changed so… no peaking” she ordered. Cole slowly put on his gi, his injury hindering his movement. He looked out of the corner of his eye and saw a mirror behind him. The mirror was facing Harumi and gave him a semi clear view of the girl getting changed. ‘She’s very muscular’ Cole though admiring the body presented towards him. As Harumi pulled up a pair of green panties over her waist, she spoke, as if reading his mind. “Cole! I said no peaking!”. Cole laughed before returning to what he was doing.


	17. All this, is for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because I've been not uploading lately, I'm going to put a bunch of chapters up.

Jay waited while his scouting party returned. He sat in his chambers while a slave woman danced for him. He’d received this gift as a birthday present two years ago, from some rich guy who lived in the desert. Every time he looked at the girl he saw Nya not some attractive and expensive slave girl. He didn’t derive much pleasure from watching the girl either. Not that half naked women weren’t his thing. Jay’s heart was the heart of a criminal. He never liked doing the wrong thing, especially killing. When he’d killed Sensei Wu, he’d debated killing himself. But the money he got for it when to a good cause. A 12-year-old girl. Her village’s leader refused to pay his father, so the village was leveled. This girl was twelve when it happened, Jay was fourteen. This girl is now seventeen. Living up in the mountains with her grandmother. Jay gave all of his money to this girl. He felt so bad for everything that had happened.

This girl meant something to him, he had to protect her, it was a gut instinct and so whenever Jay thought about why he was a pirate and why he did these horrible things for money gain, he looked at a little photograph of him and the now 17-year-old girl that was by his bed. ‘Harumi’ he thought ‘All this is for you’. Then three pirates burst through his door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this story will go on a bit of hiatus for a while, right now I don't have much time to right thus my latest chapter is only half finished. The hiatus will start on May 14th and end June 14th/15th. This was completely out of my control, but when I can get back to writing, I will add at least five chapters as an apology.


	18. Truth

It took time. Three days’ worth of time but Kai and Skylor eventually convinced the tribe to let them leave. “We have found our friends, but only our medicine can heal the stone god” Skylor lied to the towns folk as their reason for leaving. But it worked and they left the village unfollowed. They journey back to the DB X which the villagers who found it had left alone, purely out of fear. Putting Cole and Zane in the back; Kai, Skylor, and Nya travelled towards the coast. 

Skylor looked between the two siblings. Nya was looking away from Kai deliberately, even though he wasn’t wearing the crown anymore. Skylor had to break the uneasy silence. “Nya, what aren’t you telling Kai?” she said. Nya froze. Skylor didn’t know the truth but she could tell from Nya body language that she was attracted to someone in the front of the DB X. Kai attention was now divided between driving and listening. Nya started to sweat, ‘how did she know?’ Nya thought. Skylor looked at Nya with a hard stare. “If you don’t tell him I will” she spoke aggressively, “you have to tell him otherwise things are just going to get weird”. Nya didn’t say anything. Skylor sighed. “3… 2… 1…” but before she could finish Nya blurted out: “I had sex with Cole!” and then immediately slammed her hands against her mouth. Kai turned to look at her completely shocked. Skylor looked shocked as well. “Not… what I was getting at” Skylor paused debating whether to continue. “Kai, Nya has a pretty big crush on you” Skylor said. Kai slammed his foot on the breaks and Zane could be heard yelling as he was thrown across the van by the sudden momentum cancelation. The two siblings looked a Skylor; one in shock and the other furious.


	19. Wet for you ;)

“Nya, I have elemental water power’s now because of you, and thus I could sense how wet you were and after admitting how you had a crush on your adopted brother, I was getting very uncomfortable sitting between you two”. Skylor explained. outside as the two siblings confronted her. Nya was blushed a deep shade of pink and muttered something under her breath. Skylor looked at Nya, “What?”. Nya’s blush darkened as she repeated what she said slightly louder. The other two still couldn’t make out what she had said. Thus, as the embarrassment made Nya’s face turn purple; she screamed: “I wasn’t wet for Kai! I was wet for you!”. Kai looked at the two girls and pretended to causally stroll off while whistling.

Kai walked down to the coast were small bits of the ship they had arrive on were. He’d found half of the storage area. He’s found the golden weapons and their gi. Changing into his black suit, he grabbed Zane’s, Cole’s and Skylor’s. Kaze and Jaku, ‘wherever they are’ he thought, had theirs with them. They hadn’t found Kaze, Jaku or Kiomi at all yet and Kai hoped they were all right. As he left the small ruin of a yacht he noticed something in the distance. Just off the shoreline he spotted a ship. A pirate ship. As panic crept up his body he realized what ship it must be. “Jay” he swore out loud. He ran back to his friends. 

Skylor and Nya were silent. Both looking at their feet. But finally, Nya spoke, “I’ve known I might be bi for a while but I’ve only known straight people and I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of being bi yet”. Skylor looked at the younger girl and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m bi as well, remember, and I was never comfortable with it. But when Kai found out, he encouraged me to accept that its apart of me, and I think that’s made me a better person”. Skylor said with an encouraging tone. Nya was blushing slightly while she looked into the older woman’s eyes. Skylor couldn’t help but blush slightly as well. Suddenly, Kai burst onto the scene. “Guys, Jays here!” he was yelling at the top of his lungs but then he was peering suspiciously at the two girls who were blushing madly. “Jays here, and we need to stay away from the coasts!”


	20. She is me

Across familiar tyre tracks, Cole tred. Harumi was silent. This island was the dark island, that was what Cole had concluded. Nothing positive had happened since he had arrived there. Not even his time with the mysterious girl, could be seen as positive, especially as she wouldn’t tell him the truth. A trick he’d picked up from Skylor – reading people eyes to find information. But Cole couldn’t help but get lost in her eyes. They were beautiful. Vibrate shade of green which blended so well with the emerald suit she wore.  
They had returned to the coast, once they had gotten changed. Cole’s bedroom door led straight to the beach. There, moored up against a dock which came into reality when they go close was an old ship. 

The boat had a large mast. With a glass observation deck which also held the steering wheel. The bow of the this was decorated with a wooded figure head, shaped like a dragon. The side of the stern was adorned with what could be described as wings. {The original Destiny’s Bounty}. As soon as the pair boarded the boat, the ship began to sail. Day, night, day, night. No passage of time could be felt, but it seen. The duo neared the island and as they did, Cole watched as a giant storm rocked the ocean. Great typhoons collided with the boat, but had no effect on it. Harumi was outside throughout. Rain slashed against her pale face, and flowed down like river of sadness. When the storms eventually stopped; Cole joined the girl at the front of the ship. Her eyes were scarlet red. “She’s getting stronger”. Harumi didn’t speak to Cole directly, but simple spoke. Reading her eyes, Cole saw the struggle within. But then he remembered something. “When I first came here; I witness the worst moments of my life, then I watched my sensei save me. But I was followed by… buildings spitting their truth at me. I was afraid and ran, and that all I ever did.” He paused, “but no-one can run forever”. He looked at his hands. “If you can control this place, why did you show me that before you came to me”. He looked her straight in her eyes. Her evil stare locked with his. A single tear was shed from the girl. “I… didn’t know that had happened. When I found you surrounded by darkness, I thought it was the darkness within. I… didn’t know she’d found you”. Her scarlet eyes turned to look at the island ahead, rage deeply imbedded behind fiery lenses, like a soldier in trench warfare.

Stepping into the black sand, the two pulled up their hoods. “Cole, if she was responsible for what you experienced, then she already knows you’re here… and therefore, I have no right keeping you here”. Turning around, she raised her hand towards the ship. “Board that ship again and you will wake up… but if you don’t, I cannot be responsible for what happens… if we cannot stop her”. Her solemn voice rang crystal clear in the darkness of Cole’s heart. “I’m not getting on that ship until I’ve dealt with this problem. I swore an oath, to save and protect the good and innocent; until the day I have save twice as many people, as there were in the pit!”. Cole walked away from the boat and placed his feet on the thick mud of the island. “But first, I want to know who ‘She’ is”. Harumi, quickly ran to Cole and stood next to him. Her eyes returning to their dazzling green, but they were full of sadness. “’She’ is me”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going to put every chapter I have written, so far, up today


	21. Interaction

Cole replayed the events in his mind. After admitting to him the face of their foe, Harumi remained quiet. Nearing another beach and a tall mountain Cole saw… his team. They moved like ink blots in water and left a trail of dust behind them. Cole reached out towards Kai whose slow-motion sprint towards Nya and Skylor; felt like a lifetime for the earth ninja. “They can’t hear or see you Cole” Harumi said. She hadn’t stopped walking. “You can’t interact with them”. Cole looked at his friends with grief. He wanted to tell them he was all right, he wanted to… do anything to help them. But that chance had passed when he left the beach.

“Harumi? What do you know about this place?” Cole asked half an hour later, desperate to break the silence. Harumi’s face changed from its cold expression to a thoughtful look. “Hmm,” She expressed, “Not that much, I know about a few landmarks but that’s about it, why?”. Cole’s turn to answer, but he didn’t. He became lost in thought. His body had spoken with Cole’s permission. ‘The second time it’s done that’ Cole thought, his mind drifting back to why he would have asked the question. As he drifted; words formed in his mind, the words of Zane: “Ninja, numbered five, must travel to Dark Island to find the Golden goal. The Temple of Light will give them hope and fulfill black desires”.  
Cole’s black eyes widened as he suddenly remembered their whole reason for traveling to the island. “Harumi! Do you know where the temple of light is?!” he both begged and yelled the question at the green cladded girl. Harumi pointed towards the huge grey mountain ahead of them. “I need to tell them!” Cole announced, not to Harumi, it was just blurted out. Harumi removed her hood and sighed. Turning back the man was sadly said; “You can’t, no matter how hard you try, nothing you do to them her with effect the outside world”. Cole smiled with mischievous nature and hope glimmering in his onyx eyes. “What if I do something to myself!”. Harumi didn’t respond, she had never done something like that.

As the Ninja quickly climbed back into the DB X, Kai started the engine. Blasting off a break neck pace, the team rolled into the island. Zane, who was in the back of the van, began to notice something strange. The comatose body of Cole had moved. It was near the doors at the back. The titanium man watched as the body hovered slightly off the ground and then slammed into the doors. “Guys, something odd is happening in the back!” Zane yelled at his comrades, but over the sound of the engine, his voiced was nothing more than wind. Cole’s body once again slammed against the bolted doors. Zane similarly attempted to contact his friends who once again were unresponsive. The body slammed into the doors one final time and blew them off their hinges. Zane jumped out of the back of the vehicle, following the body.

As that was happening; an alert on the dashboard of the DB X flashed into existence. “The back doors? Are we under attack?” Kai stammered watching the red flashing light. The red ninja continued to drive until find a small wood to hide the van in. The two ninja and Samurai left the driver’s cabin with weapons drawn. Only to find Zane 40ft away waving at them. “What the fuck?” all three said in unison.

The group looked at Cole’s body. It’s heart beat was still slow and rhythmic, as well was its breathing. However; it’s black eyes were wide open and its right arm in a position of pointing towards the mountain. Kai rotated the body so it wouldn’t be pointing at the rocky spire, only to find the arm slowly move, so that it pointed to the mountain again. “He wants use to climb” Zane spoke casually, not at all deterred by the body of a man in a coma constantly pointing at a mountain.


	22. The Plan (Not plot)

The Plan

This is a quick notice, I wish to give everybody a rundown of what I plan to do with this series. I do intend on finishing The Dark Island and this series however, my writing time is very limited right now. I have managed to free up some time to describe to you readers my plan that was made before The Dark Island was made, so it may change btw.

The New World Saga – Current  
1\. The New World (Complete)  
2\. The Dark Island (Unfinished)  
3\. The Land of Death/ The Lord of Death (Working Title)  
4\. The Old World (Final Story) 

Possible Spinoffs – will be cannon though  
• The Dark Master   
• The Grand Awakening

The Continual Saga – Sequel  
(On the fence, unsure if I should do or not)  
5\. The Demons of the Dust  
6\. Blackened Blood  
7\. Eclipse  
8\. The Oni and The Dragon   
9\. Lost (The real end)

Time Differences:   
1 > 2 – 2 years   
2 > 3 – 6 months  
3 > 4 – 1 week  
4 > 5 – 3 years (planned)  
5 > 6 – 1 day (planned)  
6 > 7 – like a minute or something (planned)  
7 > 8 – hours (planned)  
8 > 9 – undecided


	23. At the Top

Exhausted, the ninja made it to the highest point on the peak when they saw a great monument… to nothing. All that lay on the cliff top was a ruin. No temple, no golden weapons. Just some pillars, a roofless circular room, and some broken statues.

Harumi sat upon the precipice of the mountain, staring off into the distance. Her eyes cloudy as she watched steam and smoke rise from great vents in the ground far below. She looked down at her gloved hands. Her gloves were fingerless and stretched far up her arms, leaving only her bare shoulders exposed. The black grease of fear slid across her body while her hands shook. Perched on this cliff, she could see for miles. How long had she existed, why does she exist, will she stop existing? These thoughts often clouded her mind on precipices like these. Often though, she thought of the fall. The long drop into nothingness. If she died, would ‘she’ die too? Could she die? Everything was as unclear to Harumi as ink in water. Cole sat down next to her and silently slipped his hands in hers. “If you don’t want to do this… you don’t have to go any further. Just point me in the right direction” Cole soothingly spoke, Harumi should be saying this to him, not the other way around. Harumi’s eyes were stained crimson now, she’d come closer to the other creature now than she ever had before, she could feel it worming inside her, a cancer on her body. She looked at her companion, his willing to see the fight to its end, to his end. She was ready.


	24. Dragged alone for the ride

Jay admired the wreckage. A large, expensive yacht shattered across a black beach, but this was only half. Kiomi and Kaze were locked in iron and were dragged over to the captain. Next to him was a woman; short wavy black hair, black eye patch, armored pirate uniform, two cutlasses. Jay was Nadakhan’s first mate and while he wasn’t around, Jay was captain with this woman as his first mate: Cyren. Cyren rubbed her hands through the course dust connected to the sea. She was an expert tracker, “This way” She sang, pointing north, “In a large vehicle, two people, one injured”. Jay smiled he rotated to face the imprisoned resistance members who glared at him with vengeful hatred, “Cheer up chaps, you’ll soon be reunited with your pals”. The assembled crew laughed as Jay and his first mate embarked further into the island, with the crew dragging Kaze and Kiomi along.


	25. Welcome to your demise

Kiomi watched in horror as the ruthless pirates sliced up innocent islanders. The brigands murdered the men, tortured the woman, and rounded up the elders. Jay sat on a large throne while he waited. Cyren hung by his side. Most men would be happy to have a woman like Cyren desiring to wait on them hand and foot, but Jay thought nothing of it. With the elders on their knees, Jay addressed them. 

“Do you know who I am?” his commanding voice echoing throughout the valley. The elders looked away from him, however, one man stood up. His withered stare met the pirates. “You are Lightning, but you do not join Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, and Amber. You betray the legacy!” his people, while the ninja were there seemed very primitive with little to no ability to speak, but now this villager spoke in broken Ninjago-nese. Jay smiled oddly at the villager, “Well then, where are the others?” his scarred eyebrow raised.

Nya bolted upright, she was sat in the ruins of the temple on the hill, Cole’s comatose body lay in one corner. Kai and Zane was talking outside, while Skylor slept, holding Nya close. The young adult sighed, simply a bad dream then she noticed the single cherry blossom petal laying on her clothed belly. Her now azure eyes widened at the sight of it. Straining her neck, she searched wildly for the source of the petal, but there were no trees in sight. She slowly removed herself from Skylor’s embrace and made her way over to her brother and creation. She clutched the petal in her hand while her mind raced back to the events of her dream. As she neared the two men, she notice a small pond; bordered with pebbles and exactly like the one from her dream. Kai and Zane turned their attention to her as she placed the petal in the middle of the pond and watched it sink. The flower’s remnants touched the base and a great rumble emerged. Breaking the surface of the water was an unlit brazier. Nya gestured towards Kai, who was too shocked to argue.   
The brazier was filled with liquid already, but not the water from the pond. This great white and gold fire pit was filled with oil. Kai dipped his hand into the fuel and ignited it. The fuel shone with golden flames and the light caused even violenter quakes. Skylor was snapped awake and ran over to join her companions as the ruins around them dissolved. Immerging from the failing illusion was a white marble, red tiled temple, each statue depicting a person embodying the elements of Ninjago. And the room they slept in changed. The walls were now colored with paintings of their journey to the temple. Five red pillars appeared forming a border around a circle on the floor, depicting a golden dragon. Each pillar was decorated with a symbol, representing an element. The pillars also had specially carved holes on them also.

The group stood in awe at what they’d just witnessed before Zane interrupted with “I believe the correct word for this situation is ‘SHIT!’ as now the pirates can locate us’. Zane pointed upwards and the ninja saw the great beam of golden light that pierced the heavens, emanating from the top of the temple. “Zane’s right, we have to find the weapons now!” Kai ordered and the group ran inside. 

Down with Jay, Cyren alerted her captain of the golden light. Jay smiled after her songbird like voice delivered her message. “He, he, he. Men, slaughter the villagers, we don’t need them anymore. We’ve found them!”. Jay let out an evil and hearty laugh, jumped down from the throne, and prepared for battle. 

Off away from the village, in a valley of steam vents. A bunked like structure, with thick stone doors and strange swirl like symbol reacted to the light. The symbol began to glow a violent green as the old stone doors slid open. The sounds of movement and cracking stonework resonated from within, an army marching out into the night sky. 

In Ninjago, the serpents bathed in the blood of a seaside fishing village. Their general glaring angry at the discarded limbs around him. Then footsteps. An old man, not as old as the elders of the village, but a man adorned in grey hair. Clothed in metal armor decorated in the elaborate style of a clock. Over his face; green and black eyepaint, while it seemed useless in hiding one’s identity, almost none, knew who he was – therefore, it must work. He walked over the serpent leader with a wicked and cold glare. “They have arrived at the temple of light, go there and kill them” he ordered, years of experience and knowledge of the ninja, deep within his vocal cords. A steel warship them pulled into the dock, except, it had been morphed into a giant serpent by the red and white snakes. The army boarded the vessel while the figure watched, menacingly. “Welcome to your demise ninja”. He then disappeared into the dark.


	26. Cole

Cole and Harumi slid down the jagged rock face. Hoods up, masks on. Their mission drawing to a close as they neared the steam vents of the dark island. Harumi wielded a short, curved blade. While Cole had only his fists. As they got closer to their target, the landscape began to change. The toxic, choking gas released by the vents changed colour, favoring a deep and deadly purple, the ground around them also morphed to this hue. A nearby waterfall’s clear liquid flow became a dark purple sludge with each passing step. Cole rolled his shoulders, getting in a good stretch before the fight. “Go time” he said, slamming his fists together. An orange split developed across them; his hands and lower arms shone with earth energy {RX form}.

The pair saw a figure. The dark smoky outline of a woman. Black and deep purple flowing across her body like she was water. It turned towards them. Several voices rang out; Harumi’s own, but distant and echoing, like a recording but the mic is too far away. Harumi’s voice again, but this time normal. But also, a male voice, deep, strained, raspy. These three voices were being screeched from the figure at the same time, the word they formed. “Cole”.


	27. The Battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm not the best at describing fight scenes but I think this came out alright. Also I made the enemy unnecessarily creepy in this.

Harumi charged the creature, letting out a tremendous battle cry. Her silver flashed as she swung against her foe. This beast dogged out the way, swinging its lazy arms about like they were elasticated. Cole, settling for a cliché as his opener: “You want me? Come and get me!”. If the creature had eyes, it probably rolled them. Cole charged it, levitation the ground around him to form projectiles which crashed into the thing but left no mark. It swung one fist towards Cole which hit his side, sending him spinning. Harumi, following up from behind, attempted a stealth attack but the creature anticipated this and a second fighter appeared to block this attack. A warrior, made of the ground the stood in, emitting as purple fog, similar to the skeletal warrior’s. Cole blinked as he saw this. His mind connecting the dots. Island of Darkness, landscape turning purple and evil, purple smoke like the skeletons, same colour of purple like the orb that Kiomi gave Sensei the day before everything went wrong, the orb held corruption. Cole realized that this thing was the source of the corruption. 

Harumi struggled against the stone soldier. The corruptor’s strange voice laughed at her futility. Cole launched as volley of earth as the corruptor. He clenched his fist violently and took control of the stone that formed the soldier, exploding it. Cole and Harumi now stood either side of the creature, who’s level of danger grew with each second.  
Harumi gasped as the thing moved with impossible speed, its form becoming more humanoid, its hand now clenched around a black similar to her own, but made of jagged black rock. “Harumi, why do you suffer me? Join me instead” even its voice was different. The raspy male voice was now gone, leaving only Harumi’s two copy cats. Cole slammed his fist into the creature kidneys. Its head instantly snapped backwards, the stone flesh cracking and breaking to allow such movement. The head then gained several cracks of its own. One horizontal curve, forming a mount and two small holes for eyes. A creepy and permanent smile, “Hi cutie” it flirted before spinning one arm backwards to sucker punch him in the stomach. Despite its divided attention, Harumi couldn’t defeat this other part of her. She knew it was her, in some way but looking at it now for the first time. She didn’t want to recognize it.

Cole dropped to the floor, acting as though he’d been seriously winded by the hit. The corruptor swiveled its head around to Harumi again, giving Cole the chance he needed. He swept his feet under it and the creature hit the floor. Cole then used the advantage gained by catching it off guard to do a backflip, he planned to elbow-dive it. The evil Harumi wasn’t so easily caught off guard (despite just being caught off guard). It swung its black blade at Cole and severed his arm from the elbow down. Cole landed with a thump next to it, screaming in pain. Harumi’s face broke with fear as the corruptor now had Cole exactly where she wanted him. She could now take Cole’s body and escape into the real world. The creature reached for Cole. “I won’t let you steal his body!” Harumi cried as she dived into the creature. Harumi had it pinned to the ground, but that was good. A black and purple tendril shot up the creature’s back and right through Harumi’s body. Cole yelled in anguish as his partner’s life faded away. As the tears spilt across his face, something different happened. The black tendril then began to spread across Harumi’s body, as the other Harumi melted into her. The hole in her chest filled and Harumi stood up, her eyes bleached white. A creepy smile broke across her face. Purple and black flames cursed up her body and the green ninja gi disintegrated. The white of her eyes turned black with her pupils becoming crimson with blotches of purple. The hair on her body turned white. Cole stared at what one was his friend. Cole stared at a now perfectly corrupted naked lady with a dragon tattoo spreading across her right leg. Her lips painted themselves red and she knelt next to the pale bleeding body of Cole. The extra voices silenced, now only one voice came from the body. This distant Harumi voice. “Silly girl, I never wanted Cole. It was you. Now I, The Overlord am back. And you Cole, will play an important role in my return”.


	28. A Clear Message

Cole’s eyes were cloudy with tears, his right arm’s stump expelling blood at an alarming rate. The Overlord smiled as her bare feet felt the ground around her. “A simple plan this was” she cooed. Cole suddenly found himself sat on a chair, his arm still dripping with blood. Harumi’s stolen body being prostituted by this vile creature enraged the earth ninja, but he was too drained to do anything. The Overlord began to explain her master plan, however obviously wasn’t in control of her body yet as the creature trying to scare Cole with her threats was currently pissing. “And that’s where you came it Cole. See with this body I can do so much, but I’d need someone to release this body, so simply I trapped you in your mind, your own dreams: where you have the power to control, where you have the power to release me” she smiled sweetly and flintily. Funnily enough, upon saying the world release, she stopped releasing. Cole could feel his consciousness drifting. If he was going to die here and now, at least he’d see Sensei in the afterlife.

Throbbing. Something burning within him. A message, an idea. Something he’d said to Harumi: ‘I swore an oath, to save and protect the good and innocent; until the day I have save twice as many people, as there were in the pit’. His oath, Harumi wasn’t lost, nor was she dead. She was trapped within the Overlord and that meant she needed saving. Cole’s body fought itself, desperately trying to stay alive. The Overlord was now inches away from Cole, she’d been speaking this whole time, but Cole couldn’t hear her, only the real Harumi; “You can’t give up yet Cole; they need you, the team needs you… I need you”. ‘I need you’ her words reverberated throughout his skull. The Overlord’s lips now centre meters from his own “I’ll make you mine Cole” it said seductively. Images now flashed throughout his mind, his journey with Wu, meeting Kai, being saved by Nya, living with the team, help Nya finish Zane, the trip to the island, images of his family coursing through his soul! Sensei Wu’s words to him upon granting Cole the title of Elemental Master: “Remember; Ninja never quit”. His master would have to wait. He had someone, no, everyone to save! Finally, the Overlord’s own words came to mind: “I trapped you in your mind, your own dreams: where you have the power to control”. His own mind, he remembered Harumi constantly changing the environment, his mind, he could do that!

He laughed. The Overlord backed off. His joyful, hopeful, mocking laughter cut through the corruption surrounding him. A clear message “You fucked up!”.


	29. Someday

Cole concentrated on this world, on him thoughts and dreams, on his bleeding arm. The earth around him moved; dust, metal, rocks. All of it clumping together and connecting to his arm. Cut nerve endings being extended by his own power, as his arm was reformed out of his own will power. The Overlord glared at this, enraged. “Trapping a depressed person in their own mind… bad idea. I can think of some weird shit, you don’t wanna know what goes on inside here” he said, with the biggest grin while pointing at his own head. The Overlord tried to draw her blade, but found she couldn’t. Cole shook his head and waggled his figure “Uh, uh, uh. You didn’t say the magic word”. She screamed like banshee and charged him. Her naked body was thrown fifty feet back by one well aimed punch by Cole using his new earth hand. “This place is a bit empty don’t you think, I’ll invite some friends”. Cole snapped his fingers and Kai, Nya, Zane, Kaze, Jaku, Kiomi, and Skylor all appeared. Kai, Nya, and Zane all wielding their respective golden weapons. 

The golden scythe appeared in Cole’s own hands. The entire team charged the Overlord and unleashed a volley of attack. Then Cole sprinted behind the girl, pulled his fist back and yelled: “GIVE HER BACK!”. His human hand collided with the creature and it divided into two Harumi’s, one with its black eyes and the other; fully clothed with red eyes. The hair was still white though. The good Harumi looked at herself with complete confusion before seeing Cole facing off against the Overlord. Cole glared the it. “You. Source of Ninjago’s corruption. Source of Evil. BEGONE THOT!” he yelled as a golden and white dragon descended from the heavens, with Sensei Wu on its back. It unleashed a blinding, burning golden light, and vaporized the Overlord. Cole’s mind, cleared of its own corruption.

Cole’s illusions faded, except for his hand. Harumi ran to him and embraced him, both shedding tears. Her eyes returned to their natural green. The two smiled when their embrace ended. “Cole, you did it. With her gone, your free to go” while she smiled at this, Cole looked less the happy, “What’s wrong?” Cole looked up and met her eyes “Will I ever see you again?”. He’d grown attached to the girl, despite their short time together. Not a romantic attraction, a genuine fondness. “I feel… I feel like I am real, I do exist out there, outside your mind. The human body cannot make up faces in dreams, their always based on real people or images. This means that there is a girl out there, who looks like me, and you’ve met her” Harumi’s vague answer cut off as she paused. “If… If not, I’ll still be here in your mind”. She smiled sadly. 

The environment around them began to turn white as Cole’s dream began to fade away. An invisible force now drifted them away from each other. “Harumi!” Cole yelled, “Good-bye!”. She shook her head and giggled, “This isn’t good-bye, it’s never good-bye!” she yelled in reply. Suddenly Cole found himself waking up inside and ornate temple. His right are still severed and pale. He groaned, reformed his stone arm, and got up. “Harumi” he whispered, “I’ll find you, someday”.


	30. The elements

Kai inspected the pillars. They had experimented and discovered that the pillars will sustain their elemental powers. Kai placed his hand inside the fire pillar and created a ball of flames. This flame continued to burn without fuel. Each elemental user did the same with each of their elements in their pillar. Skylor used all of her team’s elements inside hers. But with the earth pillar, her cloned earth powers didn’t work, anything done would turn to dust. After Skylor tried for the fifteenth time, the group huddled together. “Ok, so we are sure this is the temple of light, right?” Kai started, “Fuck no, we’re just guessing at this point” Nya replied quickly. Rolling his eyes Kai continued, “And we need Cole specifically to complete this ritual thing?” this time, Zane responded. “Through my best guessing, each elemental master has a particular signature that resonates through their elements, these pillars will only react when as particular signature is inside them, meaning Skylor’s earth signature isn’t the one we need. So basically, yes, we need Cole”. The groups hope dropped. “Well we need a plan to wake Cole up then” Skylor prompted. “No, we don’t I’m right here, but carry on, you were getting somewhere” Cole responded. “Thank you, Cole, now as I was… COLE?!” Skylor started before the entire group noticed their leader’s condition. The group collapsed into a giant hug as the squeezed the life out of the newly awoken ninja. Nya caught Cole up to speed with everything he had missed before Kai noticed the elephant in the temple, “Cole, where this fuck is your arm?”. Cole chuckled, “Later”. 

Placing his human hand into the pillar, he created a small rock. A beam of light shot out of the symbol on Kai’s pillar, this light bounced off crystals in the roof and hit Nya’s symbol, which in turn hit crystals in the roof and went to Zane’s pillar which did the same and went to Skylor’s, which went to Cole’s. The same light began to shine on the group, their Ninja gi began to change and when the light faded, each ninja emerged in the elemental gi, even Nya, to her dismay. The circle in the floor opened and like an elevator, a platform carrying a ginormous blue crystal rose. Inside this crystal, a man. This man has messy blonde hair, golden eyes and wore a golden elemental gi. He looked around Kai’s age {so around 21/22}. The crystal was struck by the light being refracted around the room and shattered, releasing the man. The group ran over to him. Cole look at him and watched as the golden angry eyes, were placed by confused blue eyes. The man panicked and leapt back. “Whoa, whoa! Chill, dude chill!” Kai calmed the gilded ninja down. “Who are you guys?” The frightened ninja asked. “Kai, Nya, Skylor, Zane, and I’m Cole. We’re ninja just like you”. Cole calmed, crouching next to the man. “I’m a ninja, I don’t know. I don’t know who I am. A name? I think I know a name; Martin?” He was clearly confused and scared. “Well for now, we’ll call you Martin, ok?” Cole asked, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He nodded at the older man who quickly turned away realizing that his was getting hard. He was attracted to this guy, a guy he’d just met. “Oh god” he sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, here I was planning for this to be a 17 chapter long story and now we've reached the number of chapters of the original and I'm not even finish writing the main battle, about a quarter of the way through. Also the petal that Nya encounters will be explained in a side story. BTB, I've had thoughts about Jay's character; I no longer want him to be a member of the team, don't get me wrong, he'll still be there, but playing an anti-hero/helper of the ninja rather than a ninja himself, but he'll still be involved with most major battles once he gets involved with the plot properly.


	31. The odds are good

The group descended from the mountain, adorned in their new outfits and alongside their new friend. Zane replayed the prophecy internally to pick apart details while Cole explained his story.

“Take a rest everyone” Jay ordered, he assembled crew collapsed in a heap, each of them gasping for breath after hours of walking. Kaze was sneakily trying to pick his cuffs and escape, Kiomi was trying to hide this. The Kiomi spotted something; a dark purple/black ooze. The colour drain from his flesh, “corruption” he muttered, “in such a raw state”. The substance was right next to his legs. Grabbing a pirate’s flask, he emptied its contents and scooped the ooze up, he needed to study it. “Ey you gimme that back!” the now flask-less pirate yelled. He snatched the flask without heeding Kiomi warnings and downed the contents. The man then began to change. His eyes turning black and purple, flesh and hair become a dark grey. It let of a gurgling screech and leapt towards Cyren, Jay pulled a flintlock out and blasted its skull. Thud. Lifeless it slumped to the floor. Jay glared at Kiomi’s empty and shocked expression. “One of our own… now we’ll have to take one of yours” he said with detest. After half an hour’s rest, the group continued.

Jaku skulked across the shadows. His top priority was finding Cole and protecting him. Jaku had left the wreckage of the ship and gone searching. Now almost a week on the island, he hadn’t found signs of life other than some sort of tomb. As he rested by the tomb, he heard noises from within. Movement, like marching. Then one set of feet increased pace. Jaku realized just in time and rolled to the side as a colossal quadruple armed stone giant crashed from the doorway of the tomb. Spotting him, it roared in some ancient language.

The creature crashed it’s four colossal swords into the ground where Jaku stood before. Jaku drew his daggers, unsure of the usefulness in this battle, but felt calmer knowing he at least had a weapon.

Cole stood next to the DB X admiring his stone arm. He’d really out done himself. He removed the top of his gi and let his dark skin bask in the midday light. His arm still ached where the stone and metal met flesh and bone, but it worked just fine so he didn’t care. Through his arm, he was more attune with the earth. He sat down, and remembering Sensei’s meditation stance; attempted to feel the ground around him. Plants, their roots absorbing minerals. His friends milling about. The… pirates marching that way! An army of stone, like the ones made by the Overlord. Then something else, something strange. Creatures that both walked and glided across the ground, coming from the coast, that way. Cole’s eyes snapped open. Martin was sat in a similar position staring at him. “Martin, find the others! We need to move now!” he ordered. As the golden ninja sped off, Cole put his shirt back on and pulled his ninja mask over his face. Kai, Nya, and Skylor came running over, soon followed by Martin and Zane. “Cole, what is the problem?” Zane asked, “Pirates, evil stone warriors, and snake people. All of them coming this way, ready for a fight”. Cole’s answer shocked the entire group. But now they had Martin, their numbers were up. Three golden weapons {well four if you count both shuriken} and a golden ninja, Kai liked their odds.


	32. Let battle commence

“Alright ninja, here’s the deal. We’ve got two of your people, we want your golden weapons. Two for two, even trade” Jay yelled. Cole, gripping his scythe tightly, locked eyes with the smaller pirate. “These weapons are far more important than you can imagine, we won’t hand them to simpletons like you!” he spat in return. His patched eye twitching, Jay gave the order to attack. Pirate charged the small group of ninjas, steel flashing as they raised their cutlasses and cracks as they fired their flintlocks. Jay and Cyren charged behind, Jay’s body coursing with electricity and Cyren’s blades ready.

Zane launched the golden shuriken into action, the boomerang like disks snaked between the first wave and encased them in a thick layer of ice. Nya, using the golden spear, sent a miniature hurricane into many of the frozen pirates, who were lifted by the gale force winds and sent crashing into the enemies behind. Kai sped through the oncoming army, slicing through pirates as he made his way towards Kaze and Kiomi. One particularly beefy pirate attempted to grab the scythe from Cole’s hands, but Cole whacked him with the butt of the blade, slit his throat with the blade and then transformed into a miniature tornado of earth, plowing into his opposition.

However, there was still significantly more pirates than ninja, and they were quickly being pushed back. But it was while they were getting pushed back, that the shit storm happened.

The ninja attempted to back off, allowing them some distance from the amassed pirates but found themselves blocked by the stone army. A large, four armed red and white warrior stepped forward, obviously the general. “Hey! Clear off, we were here first!” several pirates yelled at the statues. Paying them no heed, the general turned to Cole, “we wish not to fight. That thing” he pointed towards the golden ninja, “is a dangerous being which we were created to keep sealed, you must allow us to reseal it. Enough of your group’s blood has been shed”. Cole started to answer but paused, “What do you mean enough?”. The general spoke with a heavy heart, “A member of our army, fought and slew one of your team members without listening to commands. He was obliterated for his disobedience”. Cole watched as four stone soldiers dropped the lifeless body of Jaku at his feet. There were two large sword shaped holes going through his servant’s body. Cole’s body shook with rage, “Firstly, one of your own kill my friend. Secondly, you kill them without giving me the chance to exact my revenge. Then you come and ask for us to give you someone we’ve befriended!?” the general looked sadly between the body, Cole and Martin. “We never wanted him, or anyone to die. We simple want to complete our mission”. Cole slammed an elemental punch into the stone general, who sighed. “We aren’t the paltry creations of the overlord that you encountered. We were forged by the first Spinjitzu master for this purpose”. Cole clenched the scythe of quakes, in one swift move he sliced it downwards, cutting the general in half and creating a large chasm which man stone soldiers fell into, reducing their numbers by half.

Enraged by the loss of their general, the remaining army roared collectively in their strange language and charged the ninja who were now sandwiched between two enemy armies, “and here I thought we were at rock bottom… no this is much worse” Kai laughed with bleak sarcasm.

It didn’t take long for the serpents to find the battle, time for a threesome.


	33. Serpentine Intrigue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, sorry about the long wait, for personal reasons there was a time in which I couldn't write anything and following that I was away in America which left me with little time to write there so this chapter is the collection of what I've been able to write so far. Secondly, this and the next couple of chapters are all belonging to a large battle sequence which I have found difficult to write well, which has resulted in a writer's block on my behalf which is partially the reason why I haven't been writing much. I'd personally like to thank: All Fandoms Girl for here character request which reminded me that i'd left this saga unfinished but not only that but has enabled me to he ideas on how to break up the action, lessening the combat writing I'm having to do, so thank you for that! :D

It was clear that the ninja and the pirates were both targeted as several snakes attempted to attack Jay specifically. Cole, fending off two stone warriors, found himself back to back with the pirate captain himself. “Right, proposition” Jay started, “We don’t kill each other until at least three hours after we fight off these things?”. Cole turned and shook hands with the lightning master, “Agreed” he grunted before smashing another stone creature.

Kai made it over to his imprisoned friends, who had been left in the mud by the charging pirates. “Kai! Thank goodness” Kaze exclaimed when the fire ninja arrived. “Don’t thank me yet” he returned. Crouching down next to the pair, he saw the sheer strength of the locks and chain on their cuffs. Igniting his body, Kai transformed into his elemental state, starting a small bush fire. His extreme heat passed into the metal and melted their bonds, freedom at last. Kai picked up the golden sword and returned to the battle, still in his molten state.

A new type of stone warrior emerged on the battle next, they were cross bow wielding soldiers, but their arrows were coated with dark matter. One such shot hit Kai square in the shoulder, luckily, his elemental state protected him from the substance. Cole quickly assumed his own form upon noticing this detail.

Skylor hung back, she had to play babysitting duty for Martin who was useless in a fight. Her crossbow was useless against the stone army soldiers who ran for the golden ninja so she had to resort to using her friend’s elemental powers, which had little effect on the statues. She couldn’t hold the wave of blades back forever. One soldier, a four armed one, grabbed her and pinned her arms behind her back. As she struggled against its might, another soldier came, it rushed her with its long, curved blade. It swung at her throat but no contact was made, instead, Martin had grabbed the blade right before it sliced through her neck. He glared at the stone man, his gi’s hood pulled up. Golden energy began to emanate from his hand and he send this energy straight into the stone warrior in the form of blast, which disintegrated it on contact. He turned his attention to the one gripping Skylor, he raised both arms and fired out another blast, destroying the golem’s head. Skylor freed herself and watched in awe of the golden ninja, who was also shocked by what he’d just done. Skylor smiled, “heh, looks like I won’t need to look after you anymore?” Martin laughed slightly before turning his attention the five more stone warriors who were charging his way.

Jay had taken the time to observe many of the serpentine’s blades, each were either expertly crafted or so lethally sharp that they would be a threat to the wielder, but consistently, they dripped with red ooze. This ooze, was obviously poison, but, ‘no need to tell the ninja that’ he mused, cutting down a red serpent. Cyren’s twin blades shone in the now rising moon, in fact, her entire body seemed to glow in pale light. As her form became misty, she charged and decapitated several sharp fanged snakes.  
The serpentine general, Fangtom, started to order his troops to use their natural ability. Thick fangs began to pierce the flesh of the pirates, instantly they became serpent like mutants who obeyed the staff of the general. Another violent spray of blood as more pirates were cut down by the serpents. Why the snakes were against the pirates was a mystery, but it was definitely clear that there were too many foes for the combined group to handle. “Eye-patch! We need to split up, the stone guys are after us, they’ll follow us while you take the snakes” Cole yelled of the clamour of the battlefield, Jay grunted in agreement. Raising his golden scythe, Cole signalled to his fellow ninja to follow and they sped towards the opposite coast. This unforeseen tactic distracted the serpentine whose target was both sides, dividing their forces made them a lesser threat.


	34. Misfortunate Memories

The Misfortune was a smaller ship than The Misfortune’s Keep but it was just as formidable. At the helm stood a bulky armoured, giantess and waiting behind her, arms crossed was the four-armed orange skinned genie; Nadakhan. Nadakhan had business to inspect and therefore his son was left in charge but upon hearing of his journey after the fabled dark island. The djinn promptly returned to give chase. “There’s no land outside Ninjago” he grumbled. During the original voyage, he’d stayed in his cabin: now however, he lingered above deck. Oh, what a joy it was for him. He’d missed the salty sea spray as he watched his crew cleaning guns, swabbing decks, and tying knots. But as he grazed a hand against one of the wooden rails, he remembered why he loved this ship so much…

The sky was darker then. Thick rolling thunder clouds rocked the ocean as the battle raged. Serpentine swords clashed with the fine pirate steel. Nadakhan himself, splattered with the blood of his enemies, had flung himself into the fray – four cutlasses flashing. Behind him; great claps of lightning as a woman (of similar name) used her powers against there joint enemies. Nadakhan at this time wasn’t the Misfortune’s captain, but since her head was rolling across the deck, he practically was. The elemental master behind him was struggling. While red, blue, green, and black snakes would be knocked down by her might, the vivid purple Anacondrai could return to their scaly feet. The genie, noticing this launched one of his blades at the blonde hair woman. Reflexes kicking in. She grabbed the hilt of the sword and stared at the pirate with a look of defiant ‘what the fuck?!’. Nadakhan smirked, “If magic doesn’t work… commence with the stabby-stabby” before disappearing in a cloud orange smoker; reappearing somewhere else to decapitate some other snakes. 

Memories shifting, the scene changed. The sky was cloudy but blue. Arranged on the ship was several high-ranking pirates, some elemental masters and Nadakhan wearing a very odd tuxedo. A man wearing pilots goggles with a thick moustache started playing the piano, as a woman, with long wavy blonde hair boarded dressed in a white wedding dress. Slowly, she walked towards her soon to be husband who waited in front of two more men. The first was dressed in a black and white robe adorned by golden symbols. He clutched an old wooden staff and despite his short blonde hair and youthful appearance. His eyes shone with decades of age caused by the ongoing war. When the piano had stopped, the bride had reached her husband. Their hands joined as the other man stepped forward. He was older by three of four years and wore a black and dark purple robe accompanied with dark red writing. His eyes were green with a slight hint of dark red. His skin however, was the most shocking feature. It was pale, extremely pale, like that of a man whose fear knows no bounds, a fear of a slowly creeping disease or poison. This man carried a pillow, on which lay three golden rings.   
“Friends, allies, and enemies in the brig” The younger man began, pausing only to chuckle at the distant groans of the imprisoned enemies. “We are gathered here too celebrate not only this marriage, but the proof that even in this dark war, such light as love can glow.” Nadakhan smiled as his bride whose perfect while teeth grinned back.

Suddenly he could sense the muttering of many voices and was forcefully ripped out of his memories to see a vast island shape in the distance.


	35. The visage of evil

Cole sped forth, his friends following him through the gassy steam fields opposite the temple’s mountain. He was pleasantly surprised to find the landscape identical to its appearance in his dream. Speeding towards a hill, Kai became distracted be a detail resting on a cliff. It was a complicated mesh of wires, gears, and metal and was definitely the weirdest modern art fixture Kai had ever seen. A tugging at the back of his mind, and Kai could feel himself falling, falling, falling into darkness.

The ceasing of the feeling alerted him to his surroundings. Gathered around him were ninja in blue, white, grey, and green. Along side the assembled ninja was Nya and two old people – Kai recognized Wu, but the other woman was a mystery. Clutched in her hands however was black metal helmet, which emanated evil. A stone army, similar to the one Kai had been running away from, converged on the ninja led by a four-armed man whose muscular figure was blackened and burnt, and had eyes crimson and full of malice.

Snap! Kai was pulled in reality again, the stone army was closing in, alongside some serpentine stragglers.


	36. The beginning is at the end

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well... this took far to long. I have finally returned to writing and have a goal set firmly within my mind that I will finish this story by December or at least Christmas. Over the last week I've concocted an ending which makes me happy and as such was finally able to sit down and write. Sadly though I will only do one chapter today as I haven't got a lot of writing done right now HOWEVER I will be putting the next chapter up tomorrow. (I will say though, these chapters look so much longer on MS word than on AO3)

Jay’s lightning cut holes through several snakes but the rate of snake death to pirate corruption was 1:3. Warm salty sweat mixed with his own blood was the concoction poisoning his taste buds and his sword dismembered another enemy. Even Cyren was being overwhelmed. Distracted by the shift in the battle’s outcome, a green serpentine warrior with a long scaly fold flowing down the rear of its skull, almost like a hood, managed to sneak up on the elemental warrior. Its short-jagged blade slashed across his back, cutting through Jay’s Robe-pirate uniform amalgamation, producing a long uneven scar. The viscus red ooze that clung to the blade began to infiltrate the wound. Spinning ‘round, Jay thrust his blade through his enemy before wincing in pain. A sharp searing sensation rippled through his body, every atom and fibre of his being felling into excruciating agony. He crumpled to his knees. “Didn’t think this would be where I go” he grunted to himself. 

Weakly he glanced up and saw a twin-headed red serpent charging him, javelin in hand. Poof… something short but sharp shot through Jay’s executioner, and behind it he saw, floating slightly off the ground, the four-armed pirate king, Nadakhan, his father had arrived.


	37. Better late than never

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know I say this would be up the next day, things aren't going well for me right now but I do have a new chapter finishing for the first time in almost 3 months

The ninja’s luck hadn’t improved much. Finding themselves encircled upon a hill. The fight became difficult due to the lack of range the ninja were capable of, with Zane having the only ranged weapons. “Great plan Cole!” Kai yelled behind him towards the black ninja whom rolled his eye before bringing his scythe down on another stone warrior. Wave after wave, this army just seemed to get larger with every creature destroyed. Martin’s powers were very useful in their current predicament, but since he could only destroy one or two at a time, he was doing about as well as the others. Slashing, bashing, blasts, booms. The sounds of warfare echoed throughout the island. Between the four groups a conflict was formed which rivalled all which this island had seen. But thankfully, as night fell. A breath could finally be released by the ninja. The numbers of the stone army had visibly decreased. What had started almost four hours ago involved a stone army of over 800 strong, now, Cole estimated a force of 150. Not to mention all the serpents involved in the ninja’s clash had been slain. With a great smile on her face – Nya led a charge against the amassing force and slowly, but surely, through Spinjitzu tornado and golden weapon swing, the enemy numbers dwindled.

Cole gripped one of the remaining warriors. Its arms snapped off by Cole’s immense strength. “Why?! Why attack us, why come for him?!” Cole yelled gesturing towards the golden ninja. The golem laughed a dry and ancient laugh. “There will come a time, when time itself is the enemy; when hope is decimated… then… golden light shall burn away the sky, purging all in its path. The solar apocalypse shall come Cole… you cannot stop it, you cannot prevent it. We could have” it trailed off before becoming silent. The last stone warrior silence. His eyes widened as Cole slowly processed this information.   
“This has been one hell of a day” Cole sighed.


	38. When the battle ends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plan is (despite it probably never going to be followed) is to upload two chapters per week as it will give you readers more to read and me enough time to stay three chapters ahead.

Slowly, Kai removed the shirt of his gi. Letting the cold evening air bath across his sweaty muscular chest. But only as he had just managed to remove it was he tackled by the large dark mass that was Skylor. She grabbed hold of her lover and planted a huge kiss on his lips. “Should we get you two a room?” Nya remarked slightly, having removed her own top, using it to dry herself slightly. Cole glanced towards Nya, this was the first time since they’d slept together that he’d seen her topless and the heat and damp that was pouring off her body acted as a cold reminder of that night. He would have to talk to her, he thought, girls… or maybe just her, weren’t his type. 

Kaze kneeled silently, separate from his group. He’d failed his brother. He told himself to be patient and to wait for the right time to escape pirate custody instead of just running, his own brother Jaku had payed to ultimate price because of this. Kiomi noticed this and paused. The two weren’t people to usually talked, especially before the ninja team was formed. During the resistance’s era, the duo simple passed each other by, maybe they were in the same room sometimes. But after being trapped on Jay’s ship together, Kiomi felt a bond generating.

Cole allowed Nya to gently lower the trousers of his gi. Not too low mind you. Just enough to reach the bandages by his crotch. They were bloody, dried blood however. Gently, the nineteen year old removed to old bandages and inspected his wound. It had healed fairly well but it was beginning to scar, without better medical supplies there was little they could do about it. Taking herself away from the ground, Nya headed towards a small area of bushes. Skylor followed her, despite this not being the best of times, this could be the only opportunity they had.   
“Nya? I need to ask you something” the dark skinned girl asked gently. Nya, whom had separated to take a leak, wasn’t in the mood for questions – partially because she knew what was coming. “You made it seem like you liked Kai… but then you explain you like me… was Kai just a cover-up?” the girl continued gently. Nya, who had been crouching down to hide decided she had to face this head on.   
“You were always naked or half naked, always jokingly flirting with me and we spent a lot of time together… you were one of the first girl friends I ever had, even when I still had a boyfriend, now though – my feelings are something different”. Nya was standing, the tall grass only partially covering her womanhood, topless and staring Skylor down – both girls pink in the face. Then eventually, Skylor turned and walked away, silent. “Skylor!?” Nya called softly, “I don’t want this to come between us”. Skylor spun ‘round with a look of complete shock plastered across her face.   
“Come between us?! Come between us!? Nya, my best friend just admitted that she had a crush on me! How can things stay the same?!” Skylor exclaimed, not angrily though. “It’s not gonna damage our friendship or anything it’s just a stupid question” She finished with a goofy grin on her face and as the dark skinned ninja wandered off, Nya felt a heavy burden life from her body.


	39. The Antidote

At dawn the next day, the ninja moved out. They knew that if the pirates had survived they would be waiting at the temple of light, despite having just won a battle less than 12 hours ago, a new one seemed like it was about to begin. “Hang on” Kai announced suddenly, gaining everyone’s attention, “What if we went the long way ‘round… y’know, instead of going straight to the temple we go through the village and make Jay come to us. He might think that we are dead or still battling and will probably send men… hopefully himself our way. This way we fight a small number, get the DBX and run like hell” he finished. Silence passed over the group for several minutes. It might just work.

The rain was deafening as it struck the ground, practically carving holes in the earth. Guided only by memory eventually they stumbled across a body. She had been violently stripped of her clothes, every hole in her body used – even the wounds forcefully made on her flesh – shed had been killed and at the side of the road, barely 15 years old. Kai surged forward but then immediately wished he hadn’t. The village barely remained, bodies thrown everywhere – the girl by the road was spared a much more tragic fate. Some of the corpses were so mutilated from their violent defilement that they didn’t even resemble people. Everyone was silenced by such a sight. Even with the rain, a small sound could be heard; a cough. It was the village elder. Clutching in his hand he had a glass jar which contained a viscus florescent green liquid. As Kai knelt before the man, he thrust the jar into the ninja’s arms exclaiming: “Antidote!” before falling eternally silent. “Antidote?” Kai asked looking around the group, “Who needs an antidote?” all remained silent, adding the already prominent silence of the village. Burnt shacks, walls, and tents. Bodies, male and female thrown around – it was mostly the men that remained undefiled – viscera and gore spattered everywhere. Whomever or whatever had destroyed the village barely gave them a chance to fight back. Slowly, observing the dead. The group passed through the village; confused upon who would treat people in such a vile dehumanizing way. To further add to their complete confusion, there were no pirates at the temple. It was almost as though there had never been any pirates at all – even the bodies were gone.

Then, in the distance, there was a girl. A slender, 5 3” female, which dark skin and reddish brown hair. She crouched upon the edge of the battlefield, a small grin spreading across her face; pushing the long scar, which began at the right corner of her mouth and wrapped around her neck, further across her flesh. Her stormy grey eyes glimmered slightly as she flexed her fingers. Slowly she pushed her hand forward, drawing a circle in the sky around the amassed ninja. And with a snap of her fingers and a pulse of dark blue light around her palms: the ninja collapsed – magic.


	40. Interview with the pirate king

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soon. Only four or five more chapters need to written.

It wasn’t necessarily the feeling of his diaphragm being crushed that jolted Kiomi awake, more the feeling of the crusher itself. It’s not that it wasn’t painful, no it hurt like sin, but rather than the feeling of an arm of a leg ploughing into his chest, it was cloud like, perhaps like touching steam – you know something is there and you can kind of feel it, but also can’t. That was the feeling emitted by the object that rammed into Kiomi’s respiratory system. As he groaned and lifted his heavy eyelids, his eyes fell upon the furious orange form of Nadakhan the Djinn. “Which one?!” he spat angrily, “Which one of you **spineless bastards** did it to my son?”

Kiomi glanced around. The others were only just coming around and looked equally confused. “I know you fled the battle before it ended, I know you had it in for my son so I’ll ask again!” a volley spittle rained down up the deck with each syllable, “Who!?” there was silence in the confusion of the ninja.

“The fuck are you talking about?” Cole stammered before quickly being back-handed by the pirate captain.

“Don’t address me like that you damn cur! I asked you a question”. On the damp deck of the ship, Cole began to clench his stone fist, but was met with the sound of several flintlocks loading and the drawing of cutlasses. He unclenched his fist and rose to his original position, a shiny impact mark blossoming on his face. “Since no-one will volunteer, I think it’s time to make an example” the venom in his words began to turn Kiomi’s stomach. Suddenly, there was a burst as two wooden doors swung open! A woman with short wavy black hair, a black eye patch, an armored pirate uniform, and two cutlasses shot through the open doors screaming:  

“Permission to speak captain”

Nadakhan sighed angrily,                                                                                                 

“Granted”                                                                                                                                         

“The ninja didn’t do it!” he purple-black eyes fell pleadingly onto her captain, whom it took a few moments for her words to settle in.

“What?” he slowly muttered.

There was a strong willed look in the purple orbs that rested on the pirate’s face – she was adamant of this.

“First mate sir wouldn’t approve of the punishment of those that don’t deserve it so when I heard the threat I ran here from below deck, captain. The ninja, while I’m not a fan of them, had already agreed with your son to leave the battle before being poisoned, sir!” her words were so frantic that it was difficult to understand exactly what was said. Nadakhan’s eyes widened with her explanation. “Captain, if I had to guess I’d say the snake people did it”. The first detail Cole noticed was the look of true and utter fear the spread across the Djinn’s face upon hearing ‘snake people’, the second was the uneasy shuffle of a skinny brunet pirate towards the back – also upon hearing the same phrase.

Nadakhan began frantically muttering words under his breath, sweating profusely.

“Wait!” Kai announced, “Did you say poisoned?” the Djinn looked down at the fire ninja sadly. Standing up quickly, Kai practically shouted “We can fix him!” in the orange face of the pirate. Nya glanced uneasily at her group: following the silence after Kai realization. Nadakhan’s face twisted into a cruel smile.


	41. Rude Awakening

He bolted upright. Sucking great volumes of air into his burning lungs. His wet, bloodshot eyes spun wildly around to room as he looked at each of the faces staring at him. Four large arms wrapped strongly around his body shortly after and he could hear soft crying. After the powerful lock was removed from around his chest, he placed a hand over the long uneven scar that had split across his back. He looked at his naked torso, drenched in sweat. He then looked towards the other people in the room; Kai, Cole, Zane, Kiomi, Kaze, and Skylor all regarded him with neutral expressions, the golden one towards the back of his cabin looked mildly confused, his father – Nadakhan was ecstatic to see his son awake – and Nya looked almost annoyed to see Jay alive.

Slowly, the Djinn addressed the ninja, “I give you your time” before floating out of the room. Jay’s mind was lagging horribly behind – the information was too great for his brain to cope.   
“What’s going on?” he groaned slowly.   
“You almost died of an unknown substance that was forced into your body, however the village that your men destroyed and raped housed the antidote for said substance” Zane answered bluntly. Swiftly, Nya exited to room. Following this, Jay glanced down a look of intense self-disgust and guilt plastered across him brow.


	42. The Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so the December 1st finish definitely wasn't going to be met, but I'm only two or three chapters away from the ending now so it will be finished by/before Christmas.

“Jay, we made a deal with your father” Kai began, “We agreed that if we gave you the antidote to whatever was affecting you, we you get at least one hour to speak to you… and that your father and his crew would leave Ninjago and stop raiding its coastal settlements. The entire crew agreed”. Slowly, Jay nodded, taking in the new information. 

“Oh yeah, by the way. The only reason you’re not dead right now is because you are useful to us, so once you lose that usefulness – I will kill you, brutally and maliciously” Cole spat, a look of deep-rooted evil and hated smeared across his face.  
“What exactly do you need from me?” Jay responded, halfheartedly.  
“Have you even experience a dream…? A weird dream?” Kai inquired, the dictation in his voice highlighting how stupidly worded the question was.  
“Mate, you don’t want to know half the things I’ve dreamt about” the pirate said, smirking.  
“No, a dream… that didn’t feel like a dream, more like a memory, a memory of events that never happened, events that you’re there for but shouldn’t be, events with people you’ve never met?”

Jay didn’t immediately respond. He understood exactly what Kai meant, but his answer would definitely give Cole the excuse he desperately needed. “Yes I have… but they’d be of no use to you”. Silence filled the cabin. All assembled fell silent. “I had many memory like dream when I was younger, but they confused and scared me… so I forced them back, back into the deepest reaches of my mind, I’ve put a mental block on them. I don’t even remember them now.” Immediately, Cole’s fist slammed down on a table; splitters, drying cloths, water, and the other objects that lay on it were thrown into the air as Cole’s stone fist cut through the wooden table – decimating it. Cole then stormed out of the room, quickly followed by Skylor. Kai looked down, and gave a disappointed sigh. The remaining ninja left the cabin silently leaving Jay alone. He looked towards his trembling hands, for some reason he felt similarly disappointed for not revealing any information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, I'd like to just state that once this is finished, don't expect the third until a long time later. If I do any writing in December following the end of this story, it would be for Hanging In The Balance, and January is going to be busy for me so don't expect TNW 3 until at least February


	43. Ship-top conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, this chapter is pretty dialogue heavy, but it is mostly important dialogue so don't worry.

The following day, Nya rested near the bow of the Keep. The shirt of her Gi was undone revealing a blue swimsuit bikini bra. Slowly Jay approached the water ninja. It was only early in the morning, only certain members of the crew was up. Nya sighed staring towards the sun which rose in the horizon. “What do you want Jay?” she uninterestedly asked, poorly hiding the detest in her voice. Jay stopped, took a shallow breath and turned away- acting like the encounter never happened. She turned, gently pulling part of her suit’s top over her chest, and looked towards the ashamed pirated. “Jay” she said, rather more forcefully than she intended, causing a pause in his quiet escape and rotated towards the Ex-Samurai X.

“I… uh… wanted to apologize… for… um… whatever I did to offend you” he stuttered weakly.

Fury and vengeance shone in her eyes, probably one of the only time’s you could see the step-sibling relation between her and Kai.

“For whatever you did?!” she roared angrily, enough so that several of the crew members jumped. “You really don’t know why I’m so pissed off with you?! Firstly, you murdered and unarmed old man – who was practically Cole’s father! Secondly, you’ve tried to kill the ninja twice now and even me! And finally, but certainly not least, let’s mention the entire village you destroyed!”

Jay was silent during her outburst, until she retorted with the village remark;

“I didn’t do that!” she recoiled in surprise. “My men did that, all I did was force information out of the villagers and told them to harm a few so the elders would be more lenient to disclose what they knew” his voice shrunk in volume and power with each word.

“But did you say ‘no’? Did you tell them to stop? Did you interject? No?” she asked rhetorically, she already knew the answer. “Cause sometimes, doing nothing is worse than doing the act”. Jay became motionless, he was stunned to hear such passion and knowledge come from Nya. Sure she had always been an intelligent girl, but still.

“How… how can I make this up? Please Nya” Jay begged.

Nya didn’t look at him, instead she turned back towards the sun which still rested on the rolling waves in the distance, “You must change, learn what’s right and wrong, see your own mistakes in your actions and improve upon them”.

“What if I – can’t” his voice faltered, the guilt and sadness he felt rooting him to his place on the deck.

“Then you must get help; someone to guide you and help you find the rights and wrongs – or you will be lost, forever” Nya’s attention finally diverted fully from the pirate who eventually departed back to his cabin.

*

Hours passed. Cole sat on a bench near the wheel. His eyes rested on the stone amalgamation what was his right arm. Clenching and unclenching his hand he smiled sadly towards it. “How did you get that” a voice asked. He glanced up, it was the skinny girl pirate. Her stormy grey eyes met Cole’s onyx.

“What’s it to you?” He wasn’t ashamed of it, but this girl was impossible to read. She opened her mouth to respond but the pirate holding the wheel barked:

“Fuck off Witch Girl!” and she froze. Shaking his head, Cole stood up and grabbed the girl’s hand and led her below deck.

“Witch Girl?” he asked gently as she wiped a tear from her eye. She murmured a response and as she did, a strange energy shone around her fingers. “Magic” he said, wide eyed and amused. Cole hadn’t encountered a magic user in some years. The last one he knew had died – ironically she was burnt. Then his mental train hit a snag. “The other night, that black hair pirate lady said ‘snake people’ and you flinched – care to enlighten me of your connection to them?” similarly to the previous day, she flinched again upon hearing the phrase.

“1/8th” she murmured, “I’m descended from a quarter-serpentine pirate who severed under the previous captain and Captain Nadakhan”.

Cole sucked in air. He’d never encountered snake people before arriving on that island, but the girl made it seem like they were a Ninjago-native species, furthermore, the name ‘serpentine’ meant something to him – but he couldn’t place it.

*

The next afternoon. In a small coastal fishing village; the imposing sight of the Misfortune’s Keep docked in the minuscule harbor of the village.

Bodies. Blood. Burnt buildings. The entire place was decimated. Every man in that village, young or old lay in a bloody heap on the floor. But no, not just the men, but the women and the children too. They were slaughter with animals {I tip my hat to those of you that get that reference}. The ninja stared wildly at the horrifying sight that lay before them.


	44. War Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'all mind if I Plot?  
> This chapter is 98% exposition, in some big paragraphs.

Cyren leapt from the boat before it had even dropped anchor. Using her expert tracker eyes, she’d spied a set off footprint. The pattern was of scales, two were wavy lines like that of a snake’s tail, and some were foot prints with scale like patterns in them. Both types lead to the dock. Cyren had observed the tracks of the Serpentine on the Dark Island. They shared the two types of tracks as the village, however, the island had a third type of track – presumably the tracks of those pirates whom had been transformed. She relayed this information to her captain when the ship docked. “Captain, this means the snakes were only turning our men, I’d presume because our men were warriors, however I’m not an expert”.

Nadakhan stroked his mustache while pondering this information, “The serpentine. How I’d hoped I’d never deal with them again.” Cole looked up towards the floating Djinn, desiring further information. The Djinn didn’t need to face the earth ninja to tell, he just knew. “The serpentine were an ancient race of snake people. Older even then perhaps Ninjago itself. They came from a far off land around the time of The First Spinjitzu Master. They witnessed him forming the world around us, and for many years the serpentine and humans of Ninjago lived in peace. But humans got greedy, The First Spinjitzu Master was human – or human-like – and humans believe this made them superior to the snakes. They took their lands, their people, and their lives. So Ouroboros – the world’s first serpentine only city. But why stop with one, why not five, ten, all of them. Of course, it started off as a peaceful movement. But mortals only have one solution to problems.”

“War” Cole muttered

“The Great Serpentine War, 10 long brutally bloody years. The ordinary people couldn’t fight such a powerful foe as the serpentine, so it was up to the gifted – the elemental warriors. Led by Lord Garmadon and his brother, Wu, the elemental warriors fought alone for the last eight years of the war. Well, I say alone, but what I mean is that most ordinary people had decided to leave the war. The great pirate empire – of which I am king – were willing to help the warriors so long as we were rewarded well. Casualties were high and eventually we lost sight of why we were fighting, it was no longer a simple: do the job, get paid mission – now we wanted revenge. But by the ninth year, there was no hope left. The serpentine might lose one battle but we’d lose the next twelve because. Then Wu, such an amazing man, he met a snake charmer and came up with the plan to take control of the snakes. It worked like a charm, but February, the entire serpentine army was under our control. Garmadon suggested have them all slaughter each other but Wu decided to imprison them. Four tombs for the four species. We locked them up and threw away the key. We didn’t want anyone to ever find them so we never made a map. I personally don’t have a clue where any of them could be.” Everyone was silent for the Djinn’s epic speech.

An hour passed in silence as much of the crew gathered bodies from the streets and created a makeshift tomb. The ninja waited upon the peer as the pirates assembled back onto their vessel, and slowly the large ship pulled away, drifting off into the distance. Jay leaned on one of the railings looking towards Nya and the rest her team.

“You must change, learn what’s right and wrong, see your own mistakes in your actions and improve upon them”.

“What if I – can’t”

“Then you must get help; someone to guide you and help you find the rights and wrongs – or you will be lost, forever”

Her voice taunting him from within.

“Now then” his father loudly cleared his throat, “First on the agenda is to go back to island and pick up The Misfortune, then we can continue on our merry way”. Jay simply sighed looking towards the desolated town. Nadakhan exhaled and smiled towards his son. “Jay… go with them. I mean, we both know that you’re destined for so much more and that your heart isn’t the heart of a dark and frankly – evil – pirate life. You long to do good in this world, and with them you may be able to.” Jay stared at his father whom smiled proudly. Jay shot off to collect his stuff and as the pirate king watched his son leave he looked towards the heavens, “He’s so much like you dear”.

*

The ninja were surprised as a small two man dingy approached the dock, baring Jay. Leaping onto the dock he announced, “Did ya miss me?” to literally crickets making that cliché noise, although Nya rolled her eyes, she could barely contain her glee. “Anyway… I had an idea about the memory thing!” he announced towards Kai whom looked quite taken aback.


	45. Visions of what we once had (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Split into two parts because it was far too long

Rain began to fall heavily upon the town. Grey, stormy clouds smothered the sky like ash from a volcano. Melancholy mixed with the oxygen in the air as the low flames of the village were finally doused. The group rested with the ruin of a tavern, one of the only buildings which still contained a roof. As tiny droplets seeped through the cracks in the floorboards above, Jay explained his idea.

“I presumed that since you guys were asking about dream-vision-things, one of you must be having them as well. I may have blocked them out, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still get the odd one. I thought that if me and the other one somehow: triggered a vision, not only would my own images probably come back, but we might see more – or something new.”  
Kai pondered this which stroking the few wispy strands of hair that had grown on his face in the last couple of months. It could work.  
“We don’t know what causes them, though” Cole muttered, leaning on a pillar towards the back of the small room.  
“All we can do it try” responded Kai, though he knew Cole was right: even if it could work, it might not work now.

Jay planted himself down on a wooden chair as Kai sat down opposite. Both men placed their arms on the table as though they were ready for an arm wrestle. They clasped their hands together, and became extremely still.

Inky darkness with flashes of light. Each flash contained a place, time, face, or memory. Kai felt as though he was passing through a wind tunnel. Incredibly fast winds collided with him at impossible speeds. He could feel the force tearing his clothes, armour, even his flesh apart. His body screamed in pain and for release for what felt like hours, before stillness. There was silence in this inky darkness.

Then a light. Small and blue. A crystal. The perfect ocean blue diamond. In its light reflected a thousand memories, a thousand people, a single hope. The very interior showed many locations, as if he were seeing countless different worlds through this gem. Then the darkness thinned. Long spires of black injected by smoke and ash. It was a forest, and it was enflamed. Kai could make out two shapes: two men. One wore black and purple robes and wielded a glowing golden sword and nun-chucks, the other wore white and grey and held a golden scythe. Two shuriken flashed through the darkness towards the black and purple swordsman but he dodged them. These two men battled throughout the burning wood and as they did, countless other men and women were seen battling, using their own powers – this battle was the fall of the elemental warriors. 

The scene shifted and Kai was in a monastery, the two men still fought. The swordsman clearly had the advantage.  
“Wu! Give up, you’ll never beat me and I don’t want to kill you. Think of everything we’ve done together!” Said the swordsman, “think of all the things we could do together!”  
“I am brother!” cried the other, “Which is why I must stop you, before this power consumes you! Think of your wife, your daughter! Think of father!”

Wu and Garmadon. Nadakhan had mentioned their names, this was a battle between brothers. As brother met brother in glorious combat, the heat given off the forest and their sheer might was becoming too much for Kai, his consciousness slipping, he could feel the darkness calling to him. Then a great light. Wu’s body shone with an amazing golden lighted which burnt through Garmadon. The man was left burnt. His flesh rotten and black, his form morphed and mutated. Scales had sprouted across his body and his clothes had practically burnt way. As Garmadon’s form blended into the darkness, all Kai could see was the perfect hatred in his red eyes. The very earth around his split and Ninjago Island swallowed the warrior whole – taking the weapons with him.

Once again, Kai found himself in front of the gem. This time, it showed him a land of darkness. A great fortress keep, and an army of skeletons. His viewpoint shifted. Now there was a great cityscape, except it was wrong. Wrong as it the buildings were derelict, collapsing ruins and yet they looked complete, perfect, and new even. As though, they were deliberately built that way. Zooming through the towers towards one exceptionally large one, he passed through a great glass window and into a throne room.

The two chairs sat empty. But, behind them was a large open door. Beyond the door was a trophy room and pride of place in the centre was a rounded sword of perfect white. In its reflection he could see himself an infinite amount of times and ways – The Sword of Time. The words collected inside his head. This was it, this was the reason. The reason for the new world.


	46. Visions of what we once had (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lore, Backstory, things, explosions, excitement!

Long after time had a name, two brothers attempted to travel back in time to change the future, their evil plan was thwarted by two ninjas and their master. The ninja escaped the time rift but the master and bothers were lost. A year later the master escaped as a baby and his age accelerated till he had returned to his normal age. Years later, the two bothers arrived back in Ninjago with a new plan; if they couldn’t change history, why not try reality. 

After months of searching and battling with the ninja, the two brothers stole the mystical sword of time and tore a hole through reality. Kai, master of fire and Jay, master of lightning followed the brothers into the rift but before they could stop them, the ninja were cast out. A new world was born.

Long before time had a name, Ninjago was created by the first Spinjitzu master using four golden weapons, however as darkness rose he clashed against this new evil overlord. Using his powers of creation, the master turned the overlord’s own army against him and sealed it away on the dark island. Knowing his own body would act as a seal, he sired two children and locked himself away in a temple of his own creation. These two children gained their father’s powers of creation and destruction.

Wu and Garmadon were the Master’s children and they trained to master their powers and help many more do the same. But one day, the eldest was bitten by a legendary serpent which sent evil coursing through his body, it would take years before this evil manifested so until then, he was mostly the same. A great war broke out between humans and serpents, and the humans won. With the emperor’s death, his two best friends, masters of time, assumed the throne as stated in his will. The eldest brother was eventually twisted and raised an army of outcasts against his brother to steal the golden weapons and re-forge Ninjago in his image. A battle between elemental masters broke out, resulting in the deaths of most of the masters. In their own home, the two brothers battled until the eldest’s evil was banished, by the protective mark of the sensei worn by Wu, to the underworld. However, Garmadon had two of the golden weapons with him, the sword of fire and the nun-chucks of lightning.

For many years Ninjago endured peace, but Ninjago’s new rulers were cold and many people were in strict poverty with those living in the city under constant threat from the time twin’s secret police. Only the rich and evil survived as they were close to the emperors. Wu had hidden the two weapons he still had and placed a guardian with them, in hopes that Garmadon’s evil wouldn’t find them. Keeping the map with him, Wu soon found himself under threat from the time twins and he went into hiding, he inspired those around him to fight back against the oppressive rule of the brothers, thus the resistance was formed.

Many surviving elemental masters took up normal lives or found themselves consumed by darkness. This is how the new world became a dark place, before the time of the ninja.

Suddenly, the door slammed shut, and a face appeared in Kai vision. A young man with long black hair, red eyebrows and a red goatee. He smirked,  
“That’s all you’re getting for now, Kai” he laughed.  
Kai’s stomach suddenly somersaulted and he was forced to close his eyes due to the intense nausea he was experiencing. Once again, there was incredible heat. But now it was desert heat. Great sand dunes, smooth and folding, rose from the darkness. Unlike the desert Kai was used to, there was no rocks, boulders or stones insight. This was the Sea of Sand, the largest and most dangerous desert in Ninjago. 

Before him lay a grand palace. High walls mounted with a variety of defenses nestled around a small oasis. Heavily armed and armoured guards patrolled the walls. It was impenetrable. Once again, his vision zoomed into the location and he found another throne. But this one held a person. A fat sultan dressed man who was well into his 60s sat proudly on his golden throne. He expelled a hearty laugh as he smiled towards a large ocean blue gem that rested in his hand.

Darkness took him again. He could feel and invisible weight no longer pressing against his mind. His blindfold had burnt away. He could see clearly now. First, the crystal. Then, the weapons. Finally, the Old World. His path was marked, all he needed to do, was walk it.

Kai retched loudly, emptying the contents of his stomach onto the wet tavern floor. He was back.  
“What did you see?” Jay burped loudly as he too recoiled in a similar fashion to Kai.  
“Big crystal, big battle, a sword, a palace, and a whole lot of darkness” He replied, trying to steady his swirling insides.  
Then Kai snapped to attention. “Guys!” he cried, “How much do you know about Ninjago City?” Cole shuffled nervously at the mention of the turn, but then Kiomi rushed into the building.  
“Guys, we have a big problem. I just realized something.” All eyes were on him. “The serpents came to the Dark Island for us, they split up to go after both Jay and us. They were here, we were here”. Colossal volumes of tension began to build within the group, and one by one the stood up – realizing what he meant. “If this place was destroyed while we were only here for a day. What about Oasis?”


	47. Desolation of Paradise

Hours later and nightfall rested comfortably atop the rocky desert. The ninja observed with horror the sight that lay before them. Oasis was gone. Unlike the coastal village, where smouldering ruins lined every corner, Oasis’ stone buildings didn’t burn, its tight knit streets didn’t leave any opening for escape. Oasis was built as a rest stop for the weary, to protect life in the harsh desert, but instead, it became the ultimate deathtrap. Nya walked the streets alone.

Each house, shop, tavern, and building lay on its side. Overturned and destroyed by powerful impacts. The harsh red of dried blood that had splattered against the sandstone yellow of Oasis practically mapped the brutality of the conflict. No. Conflict was the wrong word. Conflict entails two opposing sides battling, only one side was fighting, this wasn’t a conflict – it was blood bath. 

Nya had practically been raised in Oasis. She knew almost every street vendor. Every young thug in every shady alleyway. Now she knew corpses. Kai was also deeply affected. Several of the nurses that worked in the hospitals of Oasis were from his village – childhood friends, childhood crushes.  
There was no sign of life. It was an oasis of death.   
Cole was ready, he placed his hand into the sand and lifted up a clump; closing his eyes and clenching his hand he sent out a wave of energy, the remains of the town was flattened and the bodies sunk into the ground and stones appeared above the head of the people, an unmarked grave for known people.

An hour passed as the ninja sat in quiet contemplation. Only someone truly evil would harm somewhere like Oasis. Even the worst criminals and the most insane psychopaths wouldn’t wish this beautiful place gone. But it was.   
“I do not want to interrupt, but I have neglected to mention something” Zane began in the distance, travelling over to the grieving team alongside Jay and Martin. “I appear to be unable to contact PIXAL anymore, and haven’t been for some time”. Nya suddenly jumped up, pushed her grief to the depths of her mind.  
“What?” she asked, fear creeping into her voice.  
“Since our second/third day on the Island, however I didn’t attempt to contact her until we’d reach the temple of light which was when I detected the fault”.   
Immediately, Nya shot off at breakneck pace – giving a master of speed a run for their money. Reacting slowly, the other ninja followed the girl, struggling to keep up with her frantic pace.

Eventually, they reached the great bone ruin which marked the entrance into the Samurai X Cave. But, instead of an underground ramp covered in a layer of sand and a section of sliding metal. There was a great hole straight into the X Cave.  
The inside was in tatters. Beds and bed sheets had been ripped apart, structural supports cracked and strained, computers/wires/machines decimated – even the bits of clothing that rested on the floor were torn asunder. Nya felt her heart snap as she saw the ruins of what had been her home for most of her life. Then she saw the central computer.


	48. Computers, Captors, and Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introduction of a new character... at the end of a story? Really?   
> Yes, the answer is yes. She was supposed to be introduced earlier but I kinda forgot she existed in my notes for... 95% of the time I spent writing this.

The central computer was PIXAL. Her mainframe, data, code, identity were all inside the large mesh of wires and screens. She might have been the most damaged object in the ruin. Jay walked towards the giant computer, which he had helped to build, and placed a hand on its cold exterior, sending small sparks through the machine.   
“Gone. Wires won’t even carry a current. She’s gone” he said solemnly.  
“I don’t understand” Martin gingerly whispered “who’s gone?”  
“There was a person that was connected to that computer. A mind, or consciousness really. She helped us out a lot and she was a big part of Nya’s life. Now all that remains it the copy of her code that remains inside of Zane”. Kai answered in a low voice.

“Then surely she isn’t gone?” Martin once again returned, his look of confusion and announcement was met with the confused faces of the rest of the team.  
“What?” they asked in unison  
“If she exists inside of Zane, surely she can be taken out of Zane and restored”.   
“That won’t work” Nya’s low mood even drained the colour from the environment. “The part that was connected to Zane contains all his fighting knowledge, his ability to process commands and deal with situations accordingly. If we remove that Zane becomes as useless as this machine here”  
“But we are still going to do it” Zane announced walking towards the golden ninja. “You told me I was created to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. Part of protecting them surely includes preventing someone from dying, so if I have to die to prevent another, so be it!” his speech was powerful and thought provoking.

“But Zane you don’t understand” Jay said, “We’d need another form to put her drive into and as the central computer is busted, there’s nowhere to put it.”  
“Not necessarily.” Nya revealed slowly.

She moved behind the central unit, a large metal square coated with tangled wires. On the back there was a small square that could be opened, this was so the wires and chips inside the unit could be repaired or replaced, however that wasn’t what was happening this time. Nya reached her arm in and reached upwards until her hands met a small metal switched, flicking it, she quickly removed her arm as the base of the machine rose. With the floor removed, a dark space below could be seen. However, before they could enter it. Three serpentine emerged from nowhere, weapons drawn and charged at the ninja.

Jay fired a large stream of electricity towards the group which separated them, followed up by Kai launching himself towards them as a Spinjitzu tornado. There were two bulky black serpents with silver metal spikes running across their head. The third was a red and white serpent with large white fangs, it was wielding a wrenched rather than a weapon like its comrades. Also unlike its companions, this one was female. The two black serpents we brutally murdered, leaving the red one unarmed. Cole pushed her into a corner, his rock fist slamming heavily into the wall next to her head. She flinched and as she did, Kaze tied ropes around her hands.  
Though she struggled, she was no match for the combined might of several really pissed off ninja. 

“Let me go!” she hissed angrily. Cole paused, none of the snakes they’d encountered had spoken before – perhaps she was more intelligent or perhaps she was different in another way. Firstly, she was the only noticeably female serpent they’d encountered, by that meaning she had scaly lumps on her chest resting where breasts would be. Secondly, the hissing was softer and to a higher octave. Finally, she was far curvier than the other serpentine they’d encountered.   
“Why? Give us one reason bitch!” Nya spat. The ferocity in her voice caused the snake-girl to flinch.  
“Stop. Everybody stop.” Said Kai, beginning understand the situation. “Back off. I’ll handle this” and as he continued, the others stopped crowding the female. “You’re not a fighter are you?” he asked, in a gentler voice than Cole had heard him use in a long time. “But then, why are you here?”  
The fear was ripe in her eyes. It was so solid you could grind meat upon it. “Mechanic.” She said quickly, kicking herself for it.  
“You work with machines. But you’re an ancient race, how do you know technology?”  
“Taught. Taught by the masters.”  
“You were waiting for use weren’t you?”  
She didn’t respond. She desired so greatly to hide any weakness in the face of her enemies, but she couldn’t. This movement was all Kai needed.

“They wanted you three to get us, meaning they’d come back. Come back to check. And if they find two dead and one left tied up, what’ll happen to you?” Now the fear was met with dread. “Who are your masters? Tell us and I swear we’ll let you live. Let you escape.” His forced as much honesty into his words as he could – but he did greatly desire to plunge his sword deep into her sternum after everything her kind had done.  
“Em… Emp… Emperors.” She stammered fearfully. Cole flinched. The emperors were from his past. A past that he’d prefer to keep hidden.  
“Alright. Thank you!” Kai said softly, pulling from his side a dagger, he placed it into the girl’s hands, “You’re free to go”  
“Kai!” Kiomi hissed, “You can’t just let her leave!”  
“I know, but I should”  
The girl stared up at her ex-captors, before rapidly slicing her rope bindings.


	49. Kiomi's Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I had a little fun with the origin of a requested OC.

The underground level contained one small room with low lighting, a small section of screens, and a large workshop table on which a naked white robotic female body rested. There was a simple purple cloth that rested over her body, shielding it from view. Her body had several areas of exposed circuitry and wires, including the back of her head, where an access port was ready to be installed.

“I had begun to build PIXAL a body but then I thought about Zane. Me and Jay planned him out and I thought he could be useful as a sidekick so I pushed PIXAL 2.0 down here. Ready to be finished at a later date. This was my secret project.” Nya began, directing the group’s attention to the metallic body resting on the table. “She is in a working condition right now and if we could add Zane’s PIXAL chip to her, it should function.” There wasn’t complete surety in her voice, but with little alternatives; it was their best option.

“I am ready” Zane announced.

“I’m not” Nya said. “But, we have to”

*

Upstairs, Kiomi and Kaze scavenged for bits and bobs. Tools, food, wires, supplies – anything they could get, all the while watching the serpentine girl in the corner. She simple sat hugging her knees, having a quiet panic attack.

“Kaze…?” Kiomi whispered softly,

“No” he responded abruptly

“Kaze?”

“No”

“Kaze?”

“…No”

“You have to talk about it.”

“No I don’t!” Kaze shouted. His rage mixing with the tears running down his face. Kiomi dropped his collected items and pulled the elder ninja into a hug. “Why am I so weak?”

“You’re not weak” Kiomi muttered.

“I am. I could’ve saved him. I could have helped him. I… I… I shouldn’t be doing this!” he declared pushing Kiomi away and picking up his dropped supplies. “I need to be hard and serious. This is an employment environment, I cannot afford to be distracted when my job it to project Lord Cole”

“Mourning over your dead brother isn’t a distraction. It’s a mandatory activity. You might want to appear tough like you brother, especially around Cole and the others. But I know you, we’ve been friends for a long time.” There was silence. “You guys are a family to me. And while you may be affected massively by the loss of a family member, but to me it feels like every family I’ve been a part of has died.” Kiomi didn’t often speak of his past. It was something that, while unlike Cole he didn’t resent it, he doesn’t like bringing up the past. As Wu often said, ‘Yesterday is in the past, tomorrow is yet to be, but today is a gift – something special – that is why it is called the present’.

“You’d think that I should be immune to death by my third family. You’d be wrong.” His voice wavered. Sighing, he continued, “When I was young. About 8 to 12 years old, I knew who I was. I knew what I was. I knew I was gay. But my parents were less open accepting than myself. At first it was a process of them trying to get me to change, then when that didn’t work, they disowned me. They threw me onto the streets because I was gay. I’d lost my family.” He breathed slowly. “Then around a year later I was adopted by a fishing family. Very nice people. Very open minded. Two beautiful sisters. Loving mother and hardworking father. Their name was Raven. I go by their name – Kiomi Raven.” He paused, tears were flowing heavily. “Then they died. I study corruption, I want to know what it is, why it happens, and how to stop it. But before that, I just wanted to study it. My desire for knowledge caused the corruption to spread throughout my father, and mother, and new born brother. The house caught fire. I was the only one I know who escaped. I caused the death of my entire family. Now I needed to know how to stop it. Then I met Cole, Wu, and the others. I lived outside the canyon, out of fear of harming you guys. I can’t lose anyone else Kaze! Even to themselves. I won’t let this pain kill you. So, if you won’t talk to me – I’ll talk to you. I’ll make you talk to me. Because you’re more than my friend, you’re my family. And so is everyone here, except for Jay – fuck that guy.”

Kaze stifled a laugh after his joke. “That must have been difficult for you. I… I must thank you.”

“When you’re ready. Any time of the day. Whenever, wherever. I am there, there for you! You’ll never be going through this quietly or alone, so get the stupid idea out your damn head” Kiomi smiled proudly at his partner, who pulled him into a tight hug. The embrace lasted several minutes before finally, they separated.

“Thank you Kiomi. But for now, let us continue with the given task.”

*

Nya slowly reached in, her hands shakily clasped around circuitry tweezers. They had made an opening in Zane’s head by removing his face and back-head plates. Exposing his metal brain – a mesh of wires, cables, and circuits that functioned almost identically to a human brain. Slowly she grasped the small computer chip labelled ‘PIXAL’, and extracted it. As she did so, Zane gave a small jolt, as though he had just received an electric shock. Then, still carrying the chip in the tweezers, she carefully walked over to the offline PIXAL, and inserted the chip into her in the same place. PIXAL cranial structure was less complicated as she was required less to be able to think humanly and more so carry the A.I. that was PIXAL. Once the chip was properly inserted, they ran a full system scan on both robots. Both running at 100% efficiency.

“How do you feel?” Nya asked Zane.

“I function correctly, how about PIXAL?” he returned in his usual calm manor.

Nya activated her latest creation. Lights began to glow green in her eyes. The purple circuitry marks on her flesh flashed as information passed through her system. PIXAL 2.0 was activated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2 chapters left + an Epilogue.   
> I have officially finished production of this story now. Every chapter has been written, all that's left is to upload them.


	50. Who are you?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Really annoyed that I couldn't finish on exactly 50 chapters.

“Where am I?” she asked, “Who are you?”

“Aw fuck!” Kai cursed. “Of course the one thing that goes fucking wrong is that the damn robot doesn’t keep any of its memories.”

Nya slammed her head against one of the keyboards attached to the screens.

“Hang on” Zane declared, “I didn’t eject the PIXAL chip and as such her systems may have reacted was if a foreign body had attacked the system, disconnecting herself behind and encrypted firewall. She may have also done this when here was attacked previously to prevent her being used by our enemies.”

Nya sighed, “But with her offline, there’s no way for us to find the passcode and re-open PIXAL.” The other robot stared blankly at the group of three.

“Perhaps if I am linked up to PIXAL as I was when I was first activated, I could open the partition from within?” Zane offered.

“No… yes? Yes. Yes, yes! That’s it! That’ll work!” Nya shouted, running around frantically, hoping to find the appropriate cable.

She forced Zane down onto a chair and brushed his metallic hair out of the way. Resting on his head’s rear plate was an access point specifically for one of these wires. Inserting one end into Zane’s and the other into PIXAL’s, she stepped back. Everything was up to Zane.

*

Code. Billions of it. Strips, files, place markers. History: visual and audio. Current events: visual and audio. As his own code travelled across reams and reams of joint code, Zane’s ‘vision’ became white.

He found himself resting upon warm grass. Above him was a cherry blossom tree. He leaned upward. He was dressed in a plain white robe with white knights armour onto. The armour was trimmed with gold and had small blue icicle like spike protruding off it. Across from him was an old man, waring similar clothing.

“Ah, Zane – welcome” he created warmly.

“Who are you, where am I?” Zane defensively asked

“I know you must be confused, but before you can continue you must know something. Somethings.” He said, “Come, come to this pool.”

Zane did so, the pool was small and bordered with black pebbles, the water within was astoundingly reflective.

“What do you see.” He asked

“I see myself” it was true. The pool showed himself as he currently appeared, “and you”.

“No, you see a robot. A template, a frame. Zane you possess a gift that is incredible, a gift that many would desire: thought. You can think. Believe. Hope. Dream. That ability makes you human. No hard titanium metal outside. No, the hero Ninjago needs is the being on the inside!”

“My insides are wires and cables.”

“Then you must look again”

Zane did. His reflection still showed the same image.

“Who are you?” the old man asked

“I am Zane, I was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves”

“Wrong! I’ll ask again.”

“I am Zane, I was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves”

“Wrong! Zane… that name is so important. Do you believe in destiny?”

“Destiny?” he asked still staring at the pool.

“Divine strings, attached to you. Your actions dictated by a cosmic puppet master. The idea that everything will happen because it was supposed to. Your fate is predetermined. Do you believe in that?”

Zane didn’t respond. He’d always believed that the only strings controlling him were the strings of code. Every action has its effects. Fate – if such a thing existed – would be dictated by the actions you take and of those others take in relation to you.

“Why is my name so important?” he asked

“Zane has a destiny. But right now, you are no Zane. You’re just a robot, pretending to be human.” The words stung Zane, oddly.

“No. You are incorrect, I am Zane: I was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves. And right now you are preventing me from fulfilling my mission!” he glared at the old man’s reflection.

“That mission being?”

“Save this world, by saving the old world”

“So you admit to the idea of other worlds, the idea that every action taken in this reality means that the other actions not taken must play out somewhere else? Eh?”

“The old world and parallel universes are two completely different things.”

“Are they? Across the archive of universes there exists well over 435 different Zanes. All of them have destinies. Therefore for you to be a Zane you must have a destiny to follow”

That was it. Zane had had enough.

“How about I ask you some questions? Who are you? Where am I? What is the point of this?” he sounded more furious with each question.

“Well” he chuckled, “my name has be lost through the eons of time, as for where you are – well that’s the tricky one. We are the realm of passed warriors. Exceptional heroes and warriors whom have passed on a taken to this realm – to their personal paradise, specifically we are in the place of communion. Where we can speak to the mortals below. One of your friend’s have already been contacted by us. Nya, my associate had fun with her and guided her on how to discover the temple of light. As for the point of this, I already said – you need to be educated.”

Zane stared, he really didn’t understand.

“Who are you is a difficult question. So instead, how about I ask you: who do you want to be?” the old man began again.

“I am… I want to be Zane” he said, pausing to think.

“Zane isn’t some mindless robot. He thinks, he feels, he – despite all appearances – is human. That is Zane, who are you?”

“Zane is human… humans are born, and if they are born how you say – they are born with a predetermined fate, then they are born – not created. No Zane was every created” his pride and power flooding in with each word and as he spoke; his reflection changed. No longer did he look at a titanium robot – but his reflection was of a human male, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

“This pool ignores outward appearances, it shows us who and what we are, on the inside. So one last time I ask you. Who are you?”

Zane laughed, he smiled, looking at the human in the water. “I am Zane and I am here to protect those who cannot protect themselves.”

“Be human, think human, don’t process – act. You say you’re Zane: be Zane! Go and be the man you declare you are!”

Zane nodded, smiling towards the kind old man,

“One more question though” Zane began

“Just one?” laughed the old man

“Who are you, who are you really?”

“Don’t you already know?”

“You’re the first master of ice, aren’t you?”

There was a pause.

“No” continued the old man, “not the first. I am the last master of ice. Not the first, but the second”

Nodding, Zane waved the master goodbye: thanking him for his help, and turned back towards where he woke up. As he walked, the image faded. Once again, Zane was code.

 

Click.

Visualizers active, voice box active… full system operational?... operating at 100% capacity.

The robotic eyes looked around, the place was small and bright and she wasn’t alone. Then she heard a voice. It was a man’s voice, synthetic but kind,

“Hello PIXAL, welcome to the world”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The 435 Zanes line is in reference to the number of Ninjago stories on AO3 with the character tag Zane. The 'archive of universes' is also a reference of AO3's name


	51. When the snow falls, the story closes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter.

Morning. Normally, Nya loved mornings. But no her heart had been rocked with horrific sights and bittersweet memories. She could feel no warmth from the sun that rose that next morning. Despite everything that had happened before and despite everything she’d seen/endured, nothing had tainted her view of the world more than this past adventure. She was a different person now.

Cole passed Kai a box containing edible supplies as they loaded the DBX. His hazel red eyes were focused elsewhere.

“Kai?” he asked gently

Kai sighed, “We can’t just leave her here”

“This? Again?” Cole groaned, rolling his eyes, “She is a serpentine, our enemy. And I don’t care if she’s a mechanic, or that she’s not a fighter. Did you ever think she might be a spy?”

“I don’t think that their species is advanced enough to have spies”

“They advanced enough to have bloody mechanics aren’t they?” he injected, rather rudely.

“Think about it this way Cole, if we were serpentine and that was Nya, would you leave her then?”

“Yes! Because I would be a serpentine and she my bloody enemy Kai! Just because I’m something else doesn’t change my view on the matter” he shouted exasperatedly

“Ok… well what if we brought her along so we can learn about our enemy, she can tell us stuff about how they fight or how they think? Or maybe we just bring her along a little bit and then drop her off? At least until she’s safe”

Cole exhaled, he was bored of this conversation.

“Fuck it. Fine Kai, ask her if the wants to come” he groaned.

“Yes!” Kai shouted, giving himself a high-five.

Kai sprinted back into the X-Cave, the serpentine girl still sat in her same corner, only she wasn’t crying anymore.

“Hey!” he greeted gently

Silence. The serpentine girl thumbed a necklace she had around her neck. It was the only article of clothing the creature wore. The necklace was made of simple rope but which two very sharp Fangpyre teeth.

“If you don’t mind me asking, whose teeth are those?”

“My parents.” It took time but she responded. “My mother and father were special. My mother was a general and my father was a scout. Serpentine warriors are used to fighting, used to death. We mate a lot. But never for making a family. Warrior mate mostly to make new soldiers. But my parents felt a genuine love for each other. These teeth are all that’s left of them. Fangpyre tradition to give the first born their parent’s teeth upon death. If teeth are not given, it means the parents were dishonoured.”

“Must be a sad existence, not being able to love” Kai muttered

“That’s only if you’re a warrior. I became a mechanic because, apart from being physically weak, I wanted love – a love like my parents. I wanted to be able to choose my lover. Not mate with the first man I meet. None warriors are less likely to die so we breed less.”

Kai didn’t really want a lecture in the serpentine mating rituals but it did give him a question.

“You said choose your lover. You don’t like men, don’t you?”

She nodded.

“I wanted to find the woman in my life, but the military has strict rules on who is and isn’t available.”

“Well, that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about originally. We are leaving soon, and we’re never coming back. I wanted to know if you wanted to come with us. Y’know, until you feel safe enough to leave. Or maybe you can stay with us. We may be warriors but there no limit on which sexes can match. I mean Cole likes men, Nya and Skylor like both, Kiomi’s probably gay. If you want a woman, you might just find one. If not, you’ll at least have a sort of family with us.”

She didn’t respond, if she stayed: she would die. If she goes with them: one of the less nice ones might harm her. But the nice man wouldn’t let that, would he?

“And if you don’t feel safe, I’d be happy to help you.” Kai continued

“…Yes” she gave in.

“Excellent, I’ll inform Cole – wait here… hang on.” He chuckled, “I never even asked your name!”

“Bitta” she muttered

*

The engine roared to life.

Kai, Nya, and Cole sat in the front with PIXAL, Zane, Kiomi, Martin, Kaze, Jay, Skylor, and Bitta in the back. Makeshift seats and seatbelts had been fitted in the back to accommodate the extra people.

Tires spun into action and the DBX shot off.

*

Lush forest land shot passed the windows of the van.

The group inside stared at the serpentine girl. She felt very uncomfortable with six sets of eyes on her. PIXAL, Zane, Martin, and Kaze paid her no attention.

The journey had been hours long now, it was now early morning, around eight o’clock. The mood of the group was solemn, loss and death hung heavily across the group like a fly in a spider’s web. They needed some hope, some joy. But none among the group were capable of providing it.

The DBX lurched, suddenly stopping.

“Bloody Lord!” swore Jay, almost being thrown out of his seat

“Milord!” cried Kaze, “What is the issue!?”

No response. The front cabin of the DBX was empty.

The remaining ground exited the vehicle to see Kai, Cole, and Nya standing outside looking towards the sky.

Snow.

It was snowing.

“Its December isn’t it?” Cole asked

“Yes” Zane answered in his usual monotone voice, “This is a natural occurrence, not me”

Kai smiled. It was contagious. A smile broke out throughout the group.

“Merry Christmas everyone” Cole said, his heart feeling a little lighter that moment.

 

The end.

{Believe it or not, but that was actually how I planned it to end, the December bit isn’t because I’m writing this in December, it was planned like this months ago}

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm uploading multiple chapters today as I didn't put one up on Friday or yesterday, so Today's goes with this and the previous one.


	52. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Same deal as TNW1, this chapter introduces the next story. The next story will probably be my longest yet (saying that this was supposed to only be 17 chapters long but here we are with 51!)   
> And yes, its very short.

An extremely fat man sat his golden throne. His usually jolly attitude was amplified by the beauty he held in his. A flawless ocean blue gemstone that reflected light so purely, it was a though you could see another world within.

“My beautiful ocean stone!” he cried in his warm, rich, oily voice, “More people must share its splendour with me.”

He paused, stroking his fantastic goatee.

“A party, a beautiful party for my beautiful gemstone. I shall invite… everyone!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for book 3: Cole and Skylor's backstories will be fully fleshed out, a new member of the team with join, two members of the team will die, Chen and Garmadon will both appear in the story, the Serpentine shall return in the next one alongside The Great Devourer.


End file.
